Bible 
^Autobiographies 



MRS. FRANCIS E. CLARK 




Class XSjS.^. 



Book. 



r 



fopightN". 



COaiBIGOT DEPOSIT, 



Bible Autobiographies 

AND 

Other Bible Stories 

BY 
MRS. FRANCIS E. CLARK 



With Preface by 
Rbv. Francis E. Clark, D.D., LL.D. 




United Society of Christian Endeavor 
Boston Chicago 



\3i 



551 



Copyright, 192 1 

by the 

United Society of Christian Endeavor 



AuG 31 1921 
g)CU624l42 



Preface 

How TO Use the Book 

Children like to impersonate other people. 
They enjoy nothing better than to play that for the 
time being they are some one else. The little girl 
is mother of her doll. The boy is the big Indian, 
Massasoit or Samoset ; and, if he can don an imita- 
tion suit of buckskin with fringes and feathers, the 
illusion is all the dearer to him. 

If not carried too far, and if it does not involve 
impersonations of unworthy characters, such play 
and pretending are a useful part of education. 
Why should not this natural element to which the 
child takes so readily be used in the religious train- 
ing of boys and girls? 

This book is an attempt, and the first of its kind, 
so far as I know, to teach the Bible stories as auto- 
biographies. The characters tell their own stories, 
and the child as he reads can easily imagine him- 
self to be telling the story of his own life, and will 
become as interested in it as in the story of Jack 
the Giant-Killer or the adventures of Cinderella. 

3 



4 PEEFACE 

The book has been prepared especially with a 
view to the needs of mothers, Junior superintend- 
ents, Sunday-school teachers, and leaders of all 
kinds of children's meetings, and with the desire to 
enable all such leaders to make the many beauti- 
ful and touching Bible stories more vivid and 
graphic, and to impress them upon the child's 
mind as it could be done in no other way. 

It will be found that almost every phase of the 
Christian life is here illustrated by some character 
who tells his story in the first person. Courage, 
kindness, thankfulness, generosity, prayerfulness, 
love, modesty, filial affection, and scores of other 
topics are here made concrete and level with the 
child's comprehension. 

Any mother, teacher, or leader can by using 
these Bible autobiographies learn to chain the 
child's attention as closely as if telling a fairy 
story. To let a boy or girl impersonate a Bible 
character and tell his own story will furnish a 
pleasing variety in any Junior meeting or Sunday- 
school class. It will fix it in his memory, and will 
impress it upon the minds of the children as even 
the teacher could not do. 

If the story-teller can dress in costume, it will be 
still more effective. A very small amount of the 
costumer's skill will often be all that is netressary; 



PEEFACE 6 

a fez, a sash, anything unusual, would frequently 
answer every purpose; and, where nothing of the 
sort is provided, the imagination of the children 
will often supply all deficiencies. 

Helps to make the Bible stories lively and living 
are still all too rare, as parents and leaders of 
children's meetings have often complained, and 
the author offers this book to her fellow workers 
for the children, as she tells me, with the hope and 
prayer that it may make their difficult but exceed- 
ingly important task easier and more delightful. 

The use of the book in the home should not be 
forgotten. Children in the family circle like to 
tell stories as well as to listen to them. Then why 
not let the boy or girl who can read tell father and 
mother and brothers and sisters one of these stories 
as a regular Sunday-afternoon exercise or as an 
adjunct to Sunday family prayers? For a bed- 
time story no better one can be found than that of 
a Scripture character personified, who will teach 
some great truth for the child to try to practise 
the next day. 

A few Bible word-pictures have also been added, 
which may be used in much the same way as the 
autobiographical stories. 

Francis E. Clark. 



CONTENTS 



Preface . 

People Spoken of in the Stories 
Lessons Taught by the Stories 
The First Disobedience 
Japheth's Story of the Rainbow 
Abraham's Journeys 
The Eyes of the Lord 
Isaac the Peace-Maker 
Jacob's Ladder . 

Miriam's Story of the Baby in the Bulrushes 
Aaron's Story of the Golden Calf 
The Story of Nadab and Abihu . 
Be Strong and Very Courageous 
Samson's Story of a Strong Body and a Weak Soul 
Ruth's Story of Daughter-Love 
Samuel's Story of His Boyhood . 
David's Story of His Fight with a Giant 
David's Song of the Starry Heavens . 
What the Heavens Are Telling . 
David's Story about His Son Absalom . 
The Bible That Was Lost and Found Again 
Gehazi's Story about Coveting . 
A Story of Angel Chariots 
A Brave Queen ..... 

7 



page 
3 

9 
II 

13 
16 

19 
23 
26 
30 

33 
36 
40 

43 
46 

SO 
54 
58 
62 

65 
68 

71 
74 
79 
83 



8 



CONTENTS 



Job's Story of His Life .... 
Jonah's Story about Running Away from God 
The Shepherd's Story of the First Christmas 
Andrew's Story of Jesus and His Friends 
Matthew's Story of His Following Christ 
A Sabbath Story Told by a Man with a With 

ERED Hand .... 
How to Be Great 
A Blind Man and His Neighbors 
A Man Who Was a Good Neighbor 
Martha's Story of a Visit From Jesus 
The Man Who Said, " Thank You " 
Two Men Praying in the Temple 
A Mother's Story about Jesus and Her Children 
Treasures on Earth or Treasures in Heaven 
Four Men Who Were Good Neighbors 
Jesus in a Rich Man's Home 
Peter's Story about Boasting 
The Man Who Was Afraid to Do Right 
Two Men Who Took a Walk With Jesus 
What Happened to a Cripple 
A Woman Who Pretended to Be Good 
Story of Dorcas, the Friend of the Poor 
Paul on the Damascus Road 
A Helper of Many .... 
Paul's Helpers and Hinderers 
How Two Men "Turned the World Upside Down 
Timothy's Story about " Enduring Hardness " 



Bible People Spoken of in the Stories 



Page 

Aaron 3^ 

Abihu 40 

Abraham 19 

Absalom 68 

Adam 13 

Ananias i6l, 167, 174 

Andrew 9^ 

Angels 22,, 79,94 

Babe of Bethlehem, The, 94 

Blind Man, A 112 

Cleopas 153 

David 58, 62, 65, 68 

Dorcas 164 

Eli 54 

Elisha 74, 79 

Esther 83 

Eve 13 

Gehazi 74 

Goliath 58 

Good neighbors.... 1 1 7, 139 

Good Samaritan 117 

Hagar 23 

Hannah 54 

Isaac 26 

Ishmael 23 

Israelites 36, 43, 71 

Jacob 30 

Japheth 16 

Jesus and a blind man. . 112 
Jesus and the children, 

109, 131 
Jesus and the man who 

said, " Thank you ".. . 124 
Jesus and the man with 

a withered hand 105 

Jesus and the man with 

the palsy 139 

Job 87 



Page 

John 98, 158 

Jonah 90 

Joshua 43 

Josiah 71 

Lame man at the Beau- 
tiful Gate, The 158 

Lot 19 

Martha and Mary 121 

Matthew 102 

Miriam 33 

Mordecai 83 

Moses 2>2>i 36 

Naaman 74 

Nadab 40 

Naomi 50 

Noah 16 

Palsy, The man with the, 139 
Paul.. 167, 171, 174, 178, 182 

Peter 109, 146, 158, 164 

Pharisee and the pub- 
lican, The T28 

Philistines 26, 46, 58 

Phoebe 171, 174 

Pilate 149 

Publicans 102, 128, 142 

Rich young ruler. The. . 135 

Ruth 50 

Samaritan, The Good.. 117 

Samson 46 

Samuel 54 

Sapphira 161 

Silas 178 

" Thank you," The man 

who said 124 

Timothy 182 

Withered hand, The man 

with a 105 

Zacchaeus 142 



Lessons Taught by the Stories 



Page 

Abide with me 153 

Afraid to do right, 36, 149 

Angel helpers 23, 79, 94 

Answer to prayer, An. . 54 
Atoning for wrong- 
doing 142 

Being or seeming 161 

Bible, The lost yi 

Blind man, Jesus and a, 112 

Boasting 128, 146 

Brave queen, A 83 

Bringing others to 

Christ. 98, 139, 178 

Caring for the poor, 87, 164 
Children, Jesus and, 109, 131 

Christ, Confessing 167 

Christ, The risen 153 

Christmas 94 

Christ's friends 98, 121 

Confessing Christ 167 

Courage and trust, 

43, 58, 79, 83 

Covenants 16, 30, 71 

Covetousness 74 

Cowardice 36, 149 

Daughter-love 50 

Disciples 98, 102 

Disobeying God 13, 40 

Doing God's errands.. 54 
Doing good 164, 171 



Page 
Easter 153 

Enduring hardness 182 

Eyes open 79 

Faith 105, 139, 158 

Father-love 68 

Fear of others 36 

Feast of Purim 83 

Fighting a giant 58 

Following Christ 98, 102 

Friends of Christ 98, 121 

Friendship with God... 19 

Generosity 87 

Giant, Fighting a 58 

Giving what we can, 

87, 158, 164 

God sees us 23 

God with us 22,, 30 

God's call 102 

God's care for us 58 

God's house 30 

God's laws 71 

God's little messenger.. 54 

God's promises 16 

Greatness, True 109 

Growing in grace 54 

Heavens, The starry, 62, 65 

Helping 164, 171, 174 

Heroism 83 

Hiding from God 13, 90 

Hindering 174 



10 



LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE STOEIES 11 



Page 
Home, Jesus in the, 121, 142 

Honoring parents 50 

How to be unhappy, 

13, 30, 74 

How to pray 128 

How to show our love 

to Christ 121 

HumiHty 109 

Hypocrisy 161 

Idols 19, 178 

Irreverence 40 

Jesus and a blind man. . 112 
Jesus and the children, 

109, 131 
Jesus and the Sabbath, 

105, 112 
Jesus in the home.. 121, 142 
Jesus, Walking with... 153 
Jesus, Wanting to see.. 142 

Joy to the world 94 

Kindness 117 

Kindness to the poor, 87, 164 
Led astray by others. . . 36 
Lending to the Lord. . . 87 
Lord is my shepherd, 

The 58 

Lost Bible, The 71 

Love of money. 74, 135 

Love to Christ, How to 

show our .^ 121 

Loving our neighbors, 

117, 139, 164 

Lying 74, 161 

Making the world better, 178 

Missionaries, Tw^o 178 

Missionary, An unwilling, 90 

Money, Love of 74, 135 

Mothers and daughters, 50 
Neighbors 117, 139, 164 



Page 
Open eyes 79 

Parents, Honoring .... 50 

Peace-making 26 

Poor, Caring for the, 87, 164 

Praising God 158 

Prayer 54, 128 

Praying and watching. . 33 
Pretending to be good, 161 

Promises, God's 16 

Psalm 8 62 

Psalm 19 65 

Purim, The feast of . . . 83 

Quarrelling 26 

Queen, A brave 83 

Rainbow, The 16 

Repentance 146 

Resurrection 153 

Riches 74, 135 

Running away from 

God 90 

Sabbath-keeping ..105, 112 
Saying, " Thank you," 

124, 158 

Selfishness 30, 68, 74 

Shepherd, The Lord is 

my^ 58 

Shirking duty 90 

Sister-love 33 

Song of the starry 

heavens 62, 65 

Song of the sun 65 

Sorrow for sin 146 

Starry heavens, The. .62, 65 
Strength of body or soul, 46 
Strong and yet weak. . . 46 

Sun, The 65 

Temperance 40 

Thankfulness 124, 158 

Thou God seest me 23 



12 LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE STOEIES 



Page 
Treasures on earth or 

in heaven 135 

True greatness 109 

Trust 43, 58, 79, 83 

Turning the world up- 
side down 178 

Unhappy, How to be, 

13, 30, 74 
Walking with Jesus 153 



Page 

Wanting to see Jesus.. 142 
Welcoming Jesus to the 

home 121, 142 

What the heavens are 

telling 65 

What to be afraid of.. 36 
Wrong-doing, Atoning 

for 142 



THE FIRST DISOBEDIENCE 

(As Eve might tell the story if she could 
come hack) 

We were alone in the world, and we lived in a 
beautiful garden that God Himself had prepared 
for us. It was a wonderful garden, with all kinds 
of trees and flowers and fruits; for out of the 
ground the Lord had made to grow ^^ every tree 
that is pleasant to the sight and good for food." 

All these good and beautiful things were for us to 
take care of and to enjoy; and God had given us 
just one law, to test us and see whether we would 
choose to obey Him. We might eat the fruit of 
every tree in the garden except one, the *^tree of 
knowledge of good and evil. ' ' That was forbidden. 

We were very happy in our beautiful garden 
until Satan tempted me to disobey God. I was 
walking one day near the tree of knowledge, think- 
ing how beautiful a tree it was, and how nice the 
fruit looked; and Satan put the thought into my 
mind that I should taste it, just as he sometimes 
puts wrong thoughts into your minds, and tempts 
you to do what you know is wrong. I knew that 
I ought to obey Gcrd, and that it would be better 

13 



14 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

to turn away from the tree at once ; but instead of 
doing that I stayed there, admiring the tree, and 
smelling of the fruit, and longing for it until I felt 
as though I must just taste it. Instead of crowd- 
ing out wrong thoughts with right thoughts I 
yielded to the temptation, and persuaded myself 
that it could not be any great harm just to taste 
the fruit. And so I ate some of the forbidden 
fruit ; and then I gave some of it to Adam and led 
him to disobey God too. 

I had thought I should be happier to do what I 
wanted to, but I soon found, as everybody finds 
who tries it, that doing what / pleased, whether it 
pleased God or not, only made me unhappy. As 
soon as I had disobeyed I began to be afraid and 
ashamed. "We neither of us wanted God to know 
what we had done ; so we went and hid ourselves in 
the garden. But we could not hide away from 
God, and we could not be happy while we were 
disobeying Him. God called us, and we had to 
confess our sin. We were sent away from our 
beautiful garden; and, though we were more and 
more sorry and ashamed when we saw how our 
sin looked to God, we could never go back there 
again, and we could never even think of the garden 
without unhappiness, remembering our disobedi- 
ence to God who had been so good to us. 



THE FIEST DISOBEDIENCE 15 

Always after that we knew that we can be truly 
happy only when we obey God, and our greatest 
punishment was the memory of our disobedience to 
our Father in heaven. If I could live my life over 
again, I would say to God 

^^With my whole heart will I seek thee; 
let me not wander from thy commandments. ' ' 



THE STORY OF THE RAINBOW 
{As JapJieth might Jiave told it) 

I WAS one of Noah's sons, and I had been in the 
ark with all of our family during all those long 
days when the flood was upon the earth. We had 
lived in a wicked world, and I had often heard my 
father talking with the neighbors about loving God 
and serving Him ; but no one cared for his preach- 
ing, and many scoffed and made fun when he be- 
gan to build the ark. What was the use, they 
asked, of building that great big boat on the dry 
land ? What would he ever do with it when it was 
finished ? 

However, we did finish it at last, though it had 
taken a long, long time. Then we all went in, and 
God shut the door. The flood came, and all the 
scoffing people were drowned, and we only were 
alive; and ^Hhe waters prevailed upon the earth 
a hundred and fifty days.'^ It seemed a long, long 
time to us ; and often I used to wonder whether the 
water would ever dry up. 

Can you imagine how glad we were when at last 
we saw the dry land again ? 0, you cannot think 

16 



THE STOEY OF THE EAINBOW 17 

how beautiful the world looked to us. The grass 
was so green, and the sky was so blue, and it 
seemed so wonderful to look at the trees again and 
the beautiful flowers ! 

The very first thing that Noah, my father, did 
was to build an altar, which was to us what your 
church is to you; and there we worshipped God, 
and thanked Him for taking care of us and for 
giving back to us so beautiful a world. Then the 
Lord made this wonderful promise to Noah: ^^I 
will not again smite any more everything living, 
as I have done." 

We were all very happy in believing God's 
wonderful promise; but one day not long after 
that it began to rain, and some of us were almost 
afraid we were going to have another flood, though 
we had God's promise that it should never be so 
again. But the shower lasted only a little while, 
and then we saw in the sky the most beautiful rain- 
bow that I had ever seen. And God said: ''I do 
set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token 
of a covenant between me and the earth. And it 
shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the 
earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud ; and 
I will remember my covenant. ' ' 

Of course we had often seen a rainbow before, 
though it had never had any special meaning for 



18 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

us; but from this time we could never look at a 
rainbow without thinking of God's covenant, for 
He had said it was to be a sign to us that God 
would keep His promise. I believe God would be 
pleased if every time we see a rainbow we should 
say to ourselves, ^^This is a beautiful sign for us; 
we must always remember, God will keep His 
promises. " 



A STORY ABOUT ABEAHAM 

(TJie man who was called '^The Friend of God^') 

There was once a young man who lived far 
away across the seas, in a city called Ur. The 
people all around him were heathen who knew 
nothing about the true God, but built idol temples, 
and worshipped gods that they made tnemselves; 
some one who lived long afterwards, and who felt 
much as Abraham must have felt, wrote this about 
their gods : 

" Their idols are silver and gold, 
The work of men's hands. 
They have mouths, but they speak not; 
Eyes have they, but they see not; 
They have ears, but they hear not; 
Noses have they, but they smell not; 
They have hands, but they handle not; 
Feet have they, but they walk not; 
Neither speak they through their throat." 

Abraham was only a young man, but he felt that 
his people were wrong and that such gods as those 
could do nothing for them ; and he would not wor- 
ship in their temples or pray to their idol gods. 

19 



20 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

He believed that there must be a greater One who 
had made the earth and all things therein, and to 
Him he prayed. 

One day this young man went to his father, and 
I think he probably said something like this: 
''Father, let us go away from this place, where 
the people worship idols and are trying to make us 
do the same. I believe that the true God calls us 
to go away to another country where we can wor- 
ship Him and teach others to do so too." 

We do not know that he said just these words, 
or just how God's call came to him; but in some 
way the message had come, and we are told that 
''by faith, Abraham, when he was called, . . . 
obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he 
went. ' ' 

If you and I could have been there then, we 
might have seen one day a little company of people 
moving out of the city of Ur, with all their belong- 
ings. There were Abraham, and his father, and 
his wife; and there was Lot, Abraham's nephew; 
and there were, I suppose, a good many of their 
servants and their cattle, for they had great pos- 
sessions ; and together they travelled till they came 
to the city of Haran, a long way from Ur. There 
they stopped and settled down for a time, perhaps 
because Terah, Abraham's father, was top tired to 



A STOEY ABOUT ABEAHAM 21 

travel further. They lived there in Haran for 
several years, until Terah died in a good old age ; 
and then Abraham felt that God called him to go 
away into another country ; so he and his wife, and 
Lot, his nephew, with their servants, and their 
cattle, and their flocks, journeyed on till they came 
to Sheehem in the land of Canaan; and there 
Abraham built an altar, and there he prayed to 
God, and there he listened to God's voice; and that 
altar meant to him just what our church means to 
us, a place to worship God. 

Afterward Abraham moved many times, to dif- 
ferent places in the land of Canaan ; but wherever 
he settled down to live for a while there he always 
built an altar, until by and by there were altars all 
over the land of Canaan. I feel sure that often 
the heathen people around him would ask him 
what those altars were for, and Abraham would 
tell them of the '^living God who made the heaven 
and the earth." I cannot help thinking that 
through Abraham's words and through his life of 
faith and obedience some of those people must 
have learned to worship the true God as Abraham 
did. 

The Bible tells us a good many other stories 
about Abraham, and in these stories we learn that 
because he believed God's promises and obeyed 



22 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIF8 

God's commands a New Testament writer could 
afterward say of him, *^ Abraham believed God, 
and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness, 
and he was called the friend of God.'' I believe 
that, if we live such lives of faith and obedience 
as Abraham's, we too may sometime be called 
''friends of God," for Jesus Himself has said, 

''Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I 
command you." 



^'THE EYES OF THE LORD ARE IN EVERT 
PLACE" 

'^Thou God seest me" 

{As Hagar might tell the story) 

I WAS an Egyptian girl who lived long, long ago, 
and my name was Hagar. I had lived in Egypt 
through all my girlhood, until I was given as a 
handmaid to a Hebrew woman named Sarah, who 
had been visiting in my country with Abraham, 
her husband. 

I found my life with her hard in many ways, 
and I did not like my mistress ; but I know that I 
was sometimes very rude and ill-natured, and per- 
haps it is no wonder that she was often very cross 
to me, and scolded me more than I thought I 
deserved. One day, after my mistress had been 
unusually severe with me, I felt that she was very 
unjust, and it seemed as though I could not bear 
it another minute; so I ran away from what I 
thought was a hard place, and soon found myself 
in a harder one. 

God could see me all the time, and He knew 
23 



24 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

that it was hard for me ; but He wanted me to bear 
it a little while longer, because it would be better 
for me in the end. I had learned something about 
God in my Hebrew home, but I did not know then 
that God could see me always, and would surely 
help me if I would trust Him. 

I wandered off without knowing where I was 
going, until I found myself in the desert, far away 
from my cruel mistress and free to do just what I 
pleased. 

I was standing alone and forlorn in the wilder- 
ness, near a beautiful fountain which I had dis- 
covered; but the eyes of the Lord were upon me 
all the time, and God sent an angel to bring me a 
message. I must go back, the angel said, to the 
place where God had put me, and must bear my 
trials and troubles a little longer. Sometime, he 
said, I should be very happy, for God would give 
me a little son, and I must call his name Ishmael, 
which means '^God hears''; and so my little son's 
very name would be a reminder to me of God's care 
for me. 

The angel's message made me very happy, and I 
was always very glad to remember the promise God 
had made about Ishmael; but, after all, the one 
thing that I of tenest remembered when I thought of 
that day in the desert alone with God was not the 



*^THE EYES OF THE LOED '' 25 

blessing God had promised, nor even the command 
to go back again to my cruel mistress and bear my 
troubles patiently; it was the thought that God 
had seen me all the time, and that He had seen me 
all my life. 

I called the well by a name that you might find 
hard to pronounce, but it meant a great deal to me, 
for it helped me to remember God. I called it 
Beer-lahai-roi, and that means *Hhe well of the 
living one that seeth me. ' ' 

I always loved that place, and in after-years I 
used to go there sometimes to think about the God 
who sees me always; and, though I often felt in 
other places and at other times that the eyes of the 
Lord were upon me, yet He always seemed a little 
nearer to me there; and often when I was in 
trouble or sorrow I would think of Beer-lahai-roi, 
and would say to myself, ''Thou God seest me!" 
and that thought always helped me. 



ISAAC THE PEACE-MAKER 

{A Word Picture) 

If you and I had been living hundreds and 
hundreds of years ago we might have seen in a 
country far across the seas a family of four people 
living in tents, a father and mother and two sons. 
The man was very rich, and was known to every- 
body in that country as a great man, for he had 
''possessions of flocks, and possessions of herds, 
and a great household/' Indeed, he grew so very 
rich and prosperous that the people of that land 
envied him and tried to injure him. 

Now, because he had so many flocks and herds 
his most important possession was a great well 
which his father Abraham had dug many years 
before; for in that country water was often very 
scarce, and a good well was very valuable. The 
Philistines, who were his enemies, came against 
him, and filled up all the wells that he had, and 
said to him, ''You must go away from here; we 
don't want you to get stronger and more powerful 
than we are." 

26 



ISAAC THE PEACE-MAKBE 27 

If we had been there then, I think we should 
have seen Isaac's servants coming to him very 
indignantly, and telling him how mean a thing 
those Philistines had done, and that the only thing 
to do would be for all the men to go out and fight 
them. ''We'll teach them that they can't treat us 
like that, ' ' they would say. 

If Isaac had been like some men, he would have 
agreed to this plan at once ; and there would have 
been war between him and his neighbors, and many 
people would have been killed, and one side or the 
other would have won, and there would have been 
hate and cruelty on both sides. 

I suppose that Isaac thought of all this, and I 
think he felt that there could never be any posses- 
sions anywhere that were worth so much awful 
cruelty and hate and murder. So he quietly 
moved himself and his possessions away to another 
place, and dug again the wells that they had dug 
in the days of Abraham. We might have heard 
his servants grumbling a little among themselves, 
and then saying, ''Well, perhaps his way is best, 
and we had better be living and digging wells here 
than dead and dying there in the fields"; and I 
think they must have felt glad that they them- 
selves had not killed any one. They must have 
been a happy company when they had finished 



28 BIBLE AUTOBIOGRAPHIES 

digging new wells, and they called them the same 
names that Abraham had called them long ago. 

But even here they were not allowed to live in 
peace, for the Philistines came again, and this time 
we might have seen Isaac's servants fighting with 
them for the possession of the best well of all. We 
should have seen their faces grow more and more 
angry as the fighting went on, but Isaac soon 
stopped it, saying, *'I think we must call this the 
'Well of Quarrelling'; we will move away and let 
them have it. " So they moved further away, and 
dug another well. 

Again the Philistines came out against them, and 
we might have heard the herdsmen saying to Isaac : 
''It is enough! There is such a thing as being too 
peaceable; those men will think you are afraid of 
them; you must let us fight them now." I can 
imagine Isaac saying quietly: "What difference 
does it make what they think? We know that we 
are not afraid. I have no doubt that we could beat 
them, but I will not have the blood of these men 
on my hands. We can dig other wells. Let us 
have peace.'' And then he said, "We will call this 
the 'Well of Hatred,' because It has caused such 
angry feelings. There is surely room enough for 
us all somewhere without fighting." 

Isaac's words proved true; for this time the 



ISAAC THE PEACE-MAKEE 29 

Philistines left him in peace, and he called the new 
well ''Room-enough Well/' ''for now/' he says, 
"the Lord hath made room for us." 

Was not that much better than hatred and fight- 
ing and murder ? I do not believe a man like Isaac 
could ever have enjoyed a well that he had won by 
fighting. But now he had a happy home with his 
family, and he felt that the Lord Himself had made 
room for him, and he could enjoy it in peace. And 
he built an altar, and called upon the name of the 
Lord. And so Isaac many hundreds of years ago 
learned the same lesson which Paul many years 
afterward tried to teach the Christians in Rome, 
and which we all need to learn to-day, 

"If it be possible, as much as in you lieth, be at 
peace with all men." 



JACOB'S LADDER 

{A story of the man who did not know God 
was with him) 

There was once a man who had been doing very- 
wrong. He had cheated his own brother, and had 
lied to his aged father; and now he was running 
away from the angry brother, who had threatened 
to kill him. All day long he hurried on, getting 
farther and farther from his home ; and I suppose 
he must have felt very homesick and lonely, for he 
was going to a far country, and he was all alone. 
I don't know whether he was really sorry for the 
wrong he had done, or only afraid he would be 
punished for doing it. I think he must have 
thought sometimes, as he hurried along, of the poor 
old father he had deceived, and of the angry 
brother he had wronged; but I am afraid he was 
not thinking much about God. 

At last it began to grow dark, and he looked for 
a place to sleep. There were no houses near, and 
he must have felt more lonesome than ever. He 
was in a very lonely place, with high, rocky cliffs 
around him ; and he had to lie down to sleep on the 

30 



JACOB'S LADDEE 31 

ground, with a stone for his pillow. I don't be- 
lieve that even then he was thinking about God, but 
God was thinking about him, a lonely, sinful man, 
and waiting to draw near to him. 

That night he had a wonderful dream about 
angels going up and down a ladder that reached 
from earth to heaven ; and at the top of the ladder 
he thought he saw God! Then, as he lay there 
alone in the darkness, God whispered a wonderful 
message to him: ^'I am with thee, and will keep 
thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring 
thee again into this land. ' ' 

Then, very suddenly, I think, Jacob waked from 
his sleep, and it seemed to him that God was very 
near him. ' ' Surely the Lord is in this lonely 
place,' ^ he said, ''and I did not know it.'' And 
then I think he himself drew near to God as he 
made some solemn promises. He took his stone 
pillow to be a stone pillar, and, setting it up as a 
little monument, he anointed it with oil, which was 
his way of saying, ''This is a holy pillar." Then 
he said, "The name of this place shall be Bethel, 
for that means ' God's house. ' " And then he made 
a promise to God: "If the Lord will be with me, 
as He has promised," he said, "then the Lord shall 
always be my God, and of all that He shall give me, 
I will surely give a tenth back to Him; and this 



32 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

stone pillow which I have set up for a pillar shall 
be God's house.'' 

Many years later he came back to Bethel again, 
and built an altar to God, and worshipped Him 
there; for he had learned now that God was near 
to him, and that he could draw near to God in 
prayer. I think this story has been kept for us 
through all these years that we may know that God 
often draws very near to us, even when we do not 
know it, and He is always waiting to bless us when- 
ever we draw near to Him in prayer. 



STORY OF MIRIAM, THE KIND SISTER 

{As she herself might tell it) 

Mr father and mother were Israelites in Egypt 
at the time of the cruel bondage of our people. I 
had one little brother named Aaron, who was 
nearly three years old when the wicked king made 
a decree that every little boy who should be born 
in an Israelite home should be killed. After that 
every home into which a little boy was born was 
soon made into a house of mourning. 

When God sent a little baby boy into our own 
home, my mother was very anxious ; and, when she 
first let me see him, she said to me, ' ^ Sh ! do not tell 
any one; if they hear about it, the cruel soldiers 
will kill him/ ^ 

Every day mother and I watched over my new 
little brother, trying to keep him so carefully hid- 
den away that no one should know we had a baby 
in our home. Very often we prayed that God 
would not let him be killed, and always we were 
trying to plan some way of keeping him hidden. 

At last mother thought of a plan, and I think it 
was God that gave her the thought. She made a 

33 



34 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

little covered basket of bulrushes, and made it 
water-tight, and put in a soft lining ; and then one 
morning, very early, we carried our baby to the 
river, and put him into the little basket; then we 
both prayed, and mother kissed him, and left me 
to watch over him. She thought that if she stayed 
people would suspect that she was his mother, but 
no one would pay any attention to a little girl who 
seemed to be playing by the river. 

I was afraid, though; I was almost tempted to 
run away, for I thought, if the cruel soldiers 
should come, perhaps they would throw us both 
into the river; but I was determined that no one 
should hurt my little brother if I could help it ; so I 
just prayed, and watched, and tried to think what 
to do. 

At last, while I was praying and watching, the 
king's daughter came down to the river to bathe, 
and at once she noticed the little basket, and sent a 
maid to bring it to her, that she might see what was 
in it ; and all the time I was praying that she might 
be kind to my little brother. 

When she opened it, and the baby saw strange 
faces all around him, he cried; and the princess 
looked down so kindly and lovingly on his little 
face that I took courage and went towards her; 
when I heard her say, *^This must be a little He- 



STOKY OF MIEIAM, THE KIND SISTER 36 



brew baby, ' ' I said, ' ' Shall I go and call a nurse of 
the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child 
for youT' That idea seemed to please the 
princess, and she looked at me, and said, '^Go." 
You may be sure that I went as quickly as possible, 
and brought mother, for she was not very far 
away. 

Then the princess said, ^^Take this child, and 
nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages." 

So we took the baby back home again with joy 
in our hearts, and mother and I took care of him 
till he was big enough to go to the palace. After 
that we did not see him very often until many 
years later; but we always prayed for him, and 
God took care of him in the palace, and many 
years later God let me go with him when he led 
our people out of Egypt. 

But I often used to wonder what would have 
happened if I had not been faithful to my trust 
and had not taken good care of my little brother. 
God could have kept him safe in some other way 
without my help, but I should have lost the chance 
of doing my part. I think all girls ought to be 
very good to their brothers and sisters, and help 
them, and pray for them always. 



AARON'S STORY OF THE GOLDEN CALF 

I WAS born a slave in the land of Egypt, and I 
lived there as a slave until I was an old man. Per- 
haps it was partly because I had been a slave for 
so many years that I was so easily led to do wrong 
afterward. That was no excuse for me, though; 
for I had a good father and mother, and they had 
taught me to fear God and keep His command- 
ments, and I knew that I ought to have been more 
afraid of grieving God than of displeasing my own 
people. 

When King Pharaoh began to fear that there 
might sometime be too many of us Hebrews in the 
land of Egypt, he issued a cruel edict that all the 
little baby boys in the Hebrew families should be 
thrown into the river as soon as they were born. 
But my father and mother had learned to trust and 
not be afraid, and it is written of them in the Bible 
that ^Hhey were not afraid of the king's command- 
ment. " 0, how I wish I had always been as brave 
as they were ! 

When my little brother Moses was born, my 
36 



AAEON' S STOEY OF THE GOLDEN CALF 37 

mother prayed ; and God helped her to plan a way 
by which not only was his life saved, but he was 
brought up in the king's palace, and was taught 
''all the wisdom of the Egyptians." 

God had planned that Moses and I should lead 
our people out of Egypt, but it was not until we 
were old men that He called us to do it. The 
Egyptians all around us worshipped false gods, 
but our people had always been taught to worship 
the true God, and through His help Moses was able 
to do great wonders in the land of Egypt ; and God 
led us out in safety. King Pharaoh and his horse- 
men followed us, but God destroyed them in the 
Eed Sea. 

We journeyed in the wilderness to Mt. Sinai, 
and then God called Moses up into the mountain, 
that he might be there alone with his God, and 
learn God's laws for His people. Moses was so long 
away that some of the people thought he would 
never come back, and they began to be afraid, and 
urged me to make them a god like the Egyptian 
gods. ''Make us gods," they said, "which shall go 
before us; for as for this Moses, the man that 
brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don't 
know what has become of him." 

Of course I knew that they were wrong and were 
trying to make me do wrong, but I was afraid. 



38 BIBLE AUTOBIOGRAPHIES 

They were so many, and I was just one! "What 
could I do against all those people, when they were 
so determined to have a god that they could see? 
They were afraid to journey on without a god to 
lead them, and so their fear led them to sin ; I was 
afraid of them, and so my fear led me to sin too. 
Oh, I have always felt so sorry and ashamed to 
think that my name has gone down through all the 
ages as the man who was afraid to do right ! Why, 
what could those people have done to me? They 
could only have killed me at the worst, and I don 't 
believe now that they would have done that. I 
think they would have been afraid to do it, because 
I was their leader next to Moses. But even if they 
had killed me, I should have gone joyfully to my 
God, knowing that I was trying to do His will. 

But I was afraid ; and so I did what they asked, 
and made them a golden calf such as they had 
seen in Egypt; and they danced around it and wor- 
shipped it, and I stood looking on. 

Oh, how ashamed I was when Moses came down 
to give us God's ten laws, and saw what we were 
doing ! Though I was not worshipping the golden 
calf, yet I felt that I was more to blame than my 
people ; for I had made the calf, and allowed them 
to worship it. 

I tried to stammer out some lame excuses to 



AAE0:N^S STOEY of the golden calf 39 

Moses, but the only thing that I could say for my- 
self was that I was afraid of the people, and I knew 
that God would not accept that excuse. 

Afterward I tried to show that I had truly 
repented, and I tried to serve God faithfully ; but I 
could never undo what I had done, and the 
thought of it always made me unhappy, even 
though I believe that God forgave it. I know now 
that what the wise man afterward wrote is surely 
true, 

''The fear of man bringeth a snare, but whoso 
putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe/' 



THE STORY OF NADAB AND ABIHU 

(A Temperance Story) 

God had told the Israelites how to build a house 
for Him, and how to worship Him there. He had 
said that as a part of their worship the priest 
should burn sweet incense before the Lord every 
morning upon the golden altar. One day a very 
sad thing happened. Two of Aaron's sons, whom 
God had specially appointed to be priests, dis- 
obeyed God. The Bible tells us that they ' ' offered 
strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded 
them not. ' ' 

God had given them very definite directions 
about the incense that should be used, and how it 
should be made, and about the fire with which it 
should be burned; and they did exactly what He 
had told them they must not do, and even did it 
as a part of their worship. What a terrible 
mockery it was, to pretend to be worshipping God, 
when they were really disobeying Him! And yet 
have we not sometimes done something very much 
like that? God does not care for our worship 

40 



THE STOEY OF NADAB AND ABIHU 41 

while we are disobeying Him. We need to watch 
ourselves while we blame these others. 

This was such open disobedience that it could 
not be excused. God had said, ''I will be sancti- 
fied in them that come nigh me'' ; and they had not 
sanctified Him, but were dishonoring Him; and 
God sent down fire from heaven and destroyed 
them. 

Then God said to Aaron, ''Do not drink wine 
nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, 
when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, 
lest ye die, . . . that ye may put difference 
between holy and unholy, and between unclean and 
clean." Because God said this to Aaron we think 
that probably Nadab and his brother had been 
drinking, and so did not realize what they were 
doing. Is it not very wicked as well as foolish for 
a man to do what he knows will put him into such 
a condition that he is not responsible for what he is 
doing? And yet even now people take strong 
drink, when they know that they will be very likely 
to get into such a condition as that. We say, ''They 
were not themselves." But they might have been 
themselves. It is their own fault that they are 
not themselves. 

How would you feel if you knew that some day 
you would not be yourself, but a very different 



42 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

person, perhaps a ragged, dirty, staggering, quar- 
relsome pei-son ? Would you choose to make your- 
self into that kind of person? And yet there are 
many people who drink what they know may cause 
just such a change as that. 

There are many lessons that we might learn from 
this story of the two priests who disobeyed God; 
but to-day we are going to remember just this 
one thing, that it was strong drink that caused 
their sin, and we must all do all we can to put 
down this great evil in the world, and to work for 
temperance, and right living, and obedience to 
God. 



BE STRONG AND VERY COURAGEOUS 

(A story that Joshua might have told) 

When I was chosen to take Moses' place as leader 
of a great people, it seemed to me almost too heavy 
a responsibility. But Moses had chosen me, and 
God had chosen me ; and I was ever one to go for- 
ward, and at least attempt whatever was given me 
to do. And yet my heart almost failed me. How 
could all this great company of many thousands of 
men, women, and children cross the swiftly flowing 
river Jordan? And how should we conquer all 
those heathen nations? I had forgotten the Ana- 
kim, the giants, and how forty years ago the ten 
spies who went with Caleb and me to spy out 
the land had said that we were only like grass- 
hoppers before them. But then I remembered that 
God had promised to be with the *^ grasshoppers"; 
and I resolved to do my best, though the work was 
very great, and looked to me almost impossible. 

But God knew that my heart was discouraged, 
and He Himself spoke to me, and gave me His 
own promise that, as He had been with Moses, so 
He would be with me, ^^Only he thou strong and 

43 



44 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

very courageous!" And so I took God's owii words 
to me, to be my watchword in all the future days. 
And I learned that to go bravely forward, trusting 
in God, was the surest way to win the victory. 

And now, as we camped on the shores of the 
Jordan, I said to the people, ''Consecrate your- 
selves, for to-morrow the Lord will do wonders 
among you.'^ I wanted them all to find courage 
in remembering that God was very near us, and 
that He was really their leader, not I. Then I 
directed that the priests should go first, carrying 
the ark, and that they should walk out into the 
river, and stand near it. They carried the same 
ark of the covenant that we had made in the wilder- 
ness according to God's directions; and we held 
it very sacred, for it was the symbol of God's 
presence among us, just as God's house is that to 
you to-day. 

I knew what God had promised, but it took great 
courage to trust His promise and act upon it ; but 
God helped me, and I gave out the orders, and we 
all marched down to the brink of the river. Very 
anxiously I watched as the priests walked down 
into the swift current. Would a way really be 
opened for us through the waters as God had said? 
As I watched, I saw the waters above us stand still, 
and form a sort of wall to protect us, and the 



BE STEONG AND VEEY COUEAGEOUS 45 

waters below flowed on until a way was made for 
us; and we all walked over through the dry bed 
of the river, just as God had promised. 

I do not know even now just how God worked 
that miracle for us, whether He sent a strong wind 
that drove back the waters, whether perhaps some 
obstacle above, sent by Him, stopped the flowing 
of the river, or whether He simply spoke the word, 
and the waters stayed at His bidding. I only know 
that in some way God Himself opened a path for 
us to pass through the river, just as He had prom- 
ised. And so our faith was strengthened, and our 
courage increased, and we learned to be ^^ strong 
in the Lord, '' for that is the only way to be truly 
strong and courageous ; and we know that we may 
always trust His promises, for 

**No word He hath spoken 
Was ever yet broken.'' 



A MAN WITH A STRONG BODY AND A 
WEAK SOUL 

{As Samson might tell the story if he could 
come hack) 

I WAS a man who ought to have been strong in 
the Lord, for God had given me a good father and 
mother, who had prayed for me, and had asked 
counsel of God that they might know how to train 
me and guide me aright. ' ' How shall we order the 
child, and how shall we do unto him?" was their 
prayer. They had tried to teach me the way of the 
Lord even from a little child, and long ago it was 
written of me, ^^And the child grew, and the Lord 
blessed him, ' ' and God had promised that I should 
''begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the 
Philistines.' ' 

God had given me a very strong body, too, and 
that was meant to be a help to me in the work that 
God wanted me to do. Long before I was born 
my people had been led by Joshua into the land 
that God had promised to them; but they had 
many enemies, and in my time our worst and 
strong'est enemies were the Philistines ; and I knew 

46 



STEONG BODY AND WEAK SOUL 47 

that God had promised that I should begin to de- 
liver my people from their power. 

I did begin to deliver them, and by the great 
strength that God had given me and with God's 
help I did much to free my people from their 
power, but I might have done much more. For 
twenty years I was a judge in Israel, and the 
Philistines were much afraid of me because I was 
so very strong and not afraid of anything ; and they 
were always trying to catch me and either kill me 
or put me in prison. 

I was once in one of their cities, and they locked 
the great heavy city gates, so that I could not get 
out in the night ; and they said that in the morning 
when the gates were opened they would kill me as I 
went out. But I went out in the middle of the 
night in spite of their shutting the big city gates ; 
you will find the whole story written in the Bible, 
and you will read that I ^^took the doors of the 
gate of the city, and the two posts, and went away 
with them, bar and all." I should like to have 
seen their faces when they went to open the gates 
in the morning. I carried the gates and posts and 
bar and everything up to the top of a hill, and left 
them there for the people to take whenever they 
could find men strong enough to carry them back. 
You will find in the Bible other stories about my 



48 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIE8 

great strong body, but you will not find anything 
about a strong soul. 

Sometimes I think my soul was stronger when I 
was a little child than it was after I became a man, 
because then I chose to go my own way, whether it 
was God's way or not. I just wanted to have a 
good time without thinking much about God; and 
so, though my body grew strong, my soul grew 
weak. It is always so when we just choose to 
seek for pleasure and good times and forget God. 
It is only when we are trying every day to please 
God that souls grow strong; and every time that 
we disobey God, and do those things that we ought 
not to do, our souls grow smaller and weaker. I 
followed my own way so much, and wandered so 
far from God's way, that my soul grew pretty 
small and weak, and at last I had such a little bit 
of a soul, and such a poor, weak will, that I did a 
very foolish thing. I let myself be persuaded to 
tell a Philistine woman wherein my great strength 
lay. 

God had said that I should always let my hair 
grow long, and that should be a sign of my obedi- 
ence to Him; and I knew that I ought not to tell 
the secret, and yet I did tell it. Of course the 
woman told my enemies ; she had teased the secret 
out of me for that very purpose, and I was not 



STEONG BODY AND WEAK SOUL 49 

strong enough in soul to resist the teasing. The 
Philistines, who had been watching for a chance to 
overpower me, came upon me while I was asleep, 
and cut my hair, and God took away the great 
strength which I had not used wisely, and then I 
became weak as other men. They shut me up in a 
prison, and put out my eyes ; and then, as a poor, 
blind prisoner I had to work for them, and often 
they used to come and mock me and make fun of 
me as I was grinding in the prison-house every day. 

And so I lost the great opportunity that had been 
given to me to be a strong power for God in my 
country. In the prison I repented of my sins, and 
told God how sorry I was for the life I had lived 
and the strength I had wasted; and God forgave 
me, and gave me back my strength, though I was 
never able to see again, for God did not give me 
back my two eyes ; yet I was able to destroy a great 
many of my country's enemies before I died, and 
you can read the story of how I did it in the Bible. 

My story is just the story of wasted oppor- 
tunities. If I could live my life over again, I 
would *^seek the Lord and his strength," and I 
would take for my motto the words that the wise 
man wrote long years afterward, 

^ * The way of the Lord is strength. ' ' 



I 



A STORY OF DAUGHTER-LOVE 

{As Ruth herself might have told it) 

I WAS born in the land of Moab, in a heathen 
country, and all my relations and all my neighbors 
worshipped idols. We always felt that the gods 
were angry with us, and we thought they would 
surely do us harm unless we brought them many 
gifts and offerings to appease them. It was not a 
happy religion, but it was the only religion I 
knew. But, when I went to live in the home of 
Naomi, I learned a better way; for she taught me 
that her God was a God of love, and I often used 
to join in her worship. 

Naomi was so kind and loving a mother to Orpah 
and me that we were very happy in her home ; and, 
when she decided to go back to her own country, I 
quickly decided to go with her. Naomi tried to 
persuade me to stay with my own people, for she 
thought I should be lonesome and unhappy in a 
strange land among strange people; but my mind 
was fully made up, and I said, ^ ' Do not ask me to 
leave thee, for where thou goest I will go; thy 

50 



A STOEY OF DAUGHTER-LOVE 51 

people shall be my people, and thy God my God. ' ' 
When she saw that I was determined to go with 
her, she no longer tried to persuade me, and, kiss- 
ing my sister-in-law Orpah good-by, w^e two went 
on until we came to Bethlehem, Naomi's old home. 

Her friends gave her a kindly welcome, for she 
was so good a woman that every one seemed to love 
her ; and we soon made a happy home for ourselves, 
even though we were poor. Then I told Naomi 
that I wanted to go into the fields and glean after 
the reapers; for it was now just the harvest-time, 
and I wanted to earn a living for both of us; and 
she said, ''Go, my daughter." Then I joyfully 
went out and gleaned in the fields, and the Lord 
led me to the field of a very kind man, who said 
that I might go every day and glean after his reap- 
ers; and I learned afterward, though I did not 
know it then, that he had said to them, ''Let her 
glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her 
not ; and let fall also some of the handfuls of pur- 
pose for her, and leave them that she may glean 
them.'' 

When I tried to thank him for his kindness, he 
said, "I have heard of all your kindness to your 
mother-in-law, and how you have left your own 
father and mother and your home, and have come 
here to a strange land, and are trying to take care 



52 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

of your mother-in-law ; may you have a full reward 
from the God of Israel, under whose wings you are 
come to trust/' 

And so Naomi and I lived together in the land 
of Israel, and every day I worked for her, and 
loved her, and tried to make her happy; and by 
and by God gave me a happy home of my own, and 
Naomi lived with me. She taught me the Ten 
Commandments that God gave to her people 
through Moses, and I tried to obey them; but I 
always especially loved the one that afterward 
was called ''the first commandment with promise:'' 

''Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy 
days may be long upon the land which the Lord 
thy God giveth thee. ' ' 

NAOMI AND RUTH 

" Entreat me not to leave thee, but convert me to 

the truth"; 
So spake in sorrow and in tears the gently chiding 

Ruth. 
" Entreat me not to leave thee, nor unclasp thy 

loosening hand; 
ril follow thee, my mother, to the far Judsean land/* 
But, turning still in ?rief away from her young, 

pleading face, 
And sadly putting back the arms so fondly that 

embrace, 



A STOEY OF DAUGHTEE-LOVE 53 

" My daughter," thus Naomi said in measured tones 

and deep, 
"We have our Sabbaths in that land, and holy days 
to keep; 
And there's a bound we cannot pass upon that 

day, you know." 
But Ruth said, " Only where thou goest, mother, 
will I go." 

Still spake Naomi, "Turn again; thy home is not 

with me; 
For Judah's children must not with the outcast 

Gentile be." 
Ruth answered, " In that stranger land with thee, 

O let me stay, 
And where thou lodgest I will lodge; I cannot 

go away." 
And then again Naomi, "We have precepts to 

observe, 
And from our fathers' worship are commanded not 

to swerve." 
Ruth answered with religious zeal, " I bow to 

Judah's Lord: 
Thy people shall my people be; thy God shall be 

my God." 

— Selected. 



HOW A BOY GREW IN GRACE 
(As Samuel might have told the story) 

I WAS an answer to prayer. Mother often used 
to tell me how sorrowful she was before I was born, 
because she had no children, and how she went to 
God's house, and prayed earnestly that she might 
have **a man child,'' and she promised God that, 
if He would send her a little son of her own, she 
would give him unto the Lord all the days of his 
life. 

God heard her prayer, and answered it, as He 
has often heard and answered your prayers and 
mine; and I was that little man child that she 
asked for. I suppose she always thought of me as 
God's answer to her prayer. She often told me 
the story; and, whenever she spoke my name, she 
said it with so pleasant, happy a voice that it 
always made me remember that I was '^ asked of 
God." Perhaps you were asked of God too. She 
told me of the promise she had made to God, and 
as soon as I was old enough to be away from her 
she took me to God's house at Shiloh. Eli, the 
aged priest who ministered there, seemed surprised 

64 



HOW A BOY GEEW IN GEACE 55 

to see us; and my mother said to him: ^'I am the 
woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the 
Lord. For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath 
given me my petition which I asked of him ; there- 
fore also I have lent him to the Lord ; as long as he 
liveth he shall be lent to the Lord. ' ' 

I was pretty lonesome when my mother said 
good-by, and went away, leaving me with Eli ; but 
I was glad to remember that I was lent to the Lord, 
and I believe God was pleased, just as He would 
be pleased to-day with any boy who would lend 
himself to the Lord to work for Him all the days 
of his life. 

Every day I ** ministered before the Lord,'' 
doing little errands for Eli, lighting the lamps, and 
opening the doors of the house of the Lord every 
morning, and watching for every little thing I 
could do to help, because I knew that I was lent to 
the Lord, and I wanted to please Him every day. 

Once every year my mother came up to Shiloh 
to see me, and every time she brought a little coat 
that she had made for me. I wonder if you can 
understand how I loved those little coats, just be- 
cause my mother made them, though I wore every 
day when I was ministering in God 's house a little 
linen garment very much like the one Eli wore. 

Every year I grew a little stronger, and a little 



66 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

taller, and a little wiser ; and always I felt that the 
Lord was with me. Once there came a time when 
God Himself gave me a message for Eli. It was 
when I was all alone in the night that God called 
me. I thought it was Eli, and I ran to him quickly 
and asked what he wanted ; and, though at first he 
thought I had just been dreaming, yet afterward, 
when I had heard the voice three times, he knew 
that God was calling to me, and so he told me that, 
if the voice came again, I must answer, ''Speak, 
Lord, for thy servant heareth;'' and I did as he 
said, and God gave me the message. 

It was a very sad message, and I hated to tell it 
to Eli, for God had said that He would send him 
great sorrow, and that it was because Eli's own 
sons had been very wicked, and he had not ''re- 
strained them." I never knew before that God 
sometimes punishes parents because they have not 
trained their children to do right. I suppose Eli 
had often wished that they would not do so many 
wrong and wicked things, but he had not ''re- 
strained them''; and so he was punished as well 
as they. 

Very soon after this it came to pass that there 
was war with the Philistines, and both of Eli's sons 
were killed in battle, and the ark of God was 
carried away into the enemy's country, and Eli 



HOW A BOY GEEW IN GEACE 57 

himself died from the great shock of all this bad 
news coming at once. 

But, though Eli was dead, all the days of my life 
I ministered before the Lord, and always I felt that 
the Lord was with me; and as I grew tall and 
strong in body, and strong in mind, I tried to grow 
strong in soul too. I think God wants us all to 
grow strong in those three ways, and as one of 
Christ 's disciples afterward wrote, we must ' ' grow 
in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus 
Christ/' 



THE GIANT-KILLER 

(As David migM perhaps Tiat^e told the story) 

1 WAS only a shepherd boy, taking care of my 
father's sheep on the Bethlehem hillside. I was 
the youngest of seven brothers. One day, while I 
was tending my sheep, a servant came hurrying to 
me, saying that the prophet Samuel had come to 
Bethlehem, and my father wanted me to come at 
once; so I left my sheep with the servant, and 
hurried home. 

I found all the family waiting for me; and as 
soon as Samuel saw me he said, *^This is the one 
the Lord hath chosen.'' Then he anointed me with 
oil, and told me that sometime I should be king of 
Israel, but not yet. Then the prophet went away, 
and I went back to my work; but I had many 
things to think about now while I was watching my 
sheep. I thought of King Saul, and of all it meant 
to be a king ; and I thought of the prophet and all 
that he had said ; and then I thought of God, and 
what kind of man He would want a king to be ; and 
I tried to be such a young man, even now while I 
was only a shepherd boy. 

58 



THE GIANT-KILLEE 59 

I used to sing a good deal as I sat there alone on 
the hillside. I thought of my sheep, and how I 
took care of them, and fed them, and watered 
them, and kept them safe from their enemies ; and 
then I thought that just in that same way the 
Lord took care of me, and I sang a shepherd song. 
''God is my shepherd,'' I said to myself; ''and 
while He takes care of me I shall never be in 
want"; and so, as I thought of all His care for 
me every day, I wrote the song beginning, 

"The Lord is my shepherd; 
I shall not want.'* 

Since that time many people have sung the same 
song, and I hope it has helped them as it helped me. 
Those were happy days when I kept my sheep and 
sang my songs, and I always trusted God to take 
care of me as I took care of my sheep. 

Once I had a great adventure. Very suddenly 
one night there came a lion and a bear out of the 
woods, and carried off one of my lambs. Quickly 
I went after them, praying all the time in my heart 
that God would help me. And God heard my 
prayer, and He did help me, and I killed both the 
lion and the bear, and saved my lamb. After that 
I always trusted God, and always when I was in 
danger I remembered how God had saved me from 



60 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

the lion and the bear, and I knew He could save 
me again. 

There came a time not long after that when the 
memory of that lion and bear was a great help and 
comfort to me. My people were fighting against 
our enemies, the Philistines. My big brothers 
were in the army, and my father sent me to carry 
them some food, and to find out how they were 
prospering. The very day I came to them a great 
giant came out into the field before all our people, 
and challenged our army to send out a man to 
fight him. ''Choose you a man to fight with me,'' 
he said, '^and let him come down to me; if he be 
able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we 
be your servants ; but, if I prevail against him and 
kill him, then you shall be our servants, and shall 
serve us." And then he said, ''I defy the armies 
of Israel this day; give me a man that we may 
fight together." 

Every day the giant came out and defied our 
army, and because he was so big a giant no one 
dared to fight him. When I saw that they were 
all afraid of him, I said I would go out and fight 
him. Of course they laughed at me, and asked if 
I wanted to be killed ; but I insisted that the God 
I trusted would be with me, and would help me to 
kill the giant; and I was not afraid. 



THE GIANT-KILLEE 61 

At last they took me to King Saul, and told him 
that I had offered to fight the giant. The king 
said that it was impossible that I could kill that 
great giant, but I told him about the lion and the 
bear that came out against me, and how God helped 
me to kill them and get back my lamb, and I said 
that because God had helped me then I would 
trust Him to help me now, and with God's help I 
need not be afraid. 

When I went out to meet him, the giant scoffed 
at me; but I told him I came in the name of my 
God, and that I believed the God in whom I 
trusted would help me. Then just with my shep- 
herd's sling I threw a stone, and hit him in the 
forehead, and killed him; and all the soldiers in 
his army were afraid and ran, and our soldiers 
chased them and conquered them. 

Many times in my after-life I was in trouble and 
danger ; but I trusted God, and He helped me, and 
I could always say, ^^What time I am afraid I will 
trust in the Lord.'' Then I learned to say even 
more than that, for I said, ^'I will trust in the Lord 
and not he afraid,^ ^ Every one who can say that 
from his heart will find that God will always help 
him in every trouble. 



A SONG OF THE STARRY HEAVENS 

{A Word Picture) 

A LONG, long time ago, in a country far away 
from here a young shepherd was sitting on a hill- 
side watching his sheep. Day after day he tended 
them, leading them into green pastures and beside 
still waters, where they might drink, and protect- 
ing them from wild beasts by day and by night. 

If I close my eyes, I can almost see him, sitting 
on a hillside on some still, clear evening, in the 
moonlight and the starlight, looking up into the 
starry heavens, and thinking of their wonders and 
the God who made the stars and the moon. Sitting 
there in the starlight alone with his sheep, he had 
much time for thought; and, as he thought, he 
prayed, ^^When I consider thy heavens, Lord, 
the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained ' ' ; 
and then perhaps he stopped and again ''consid- 
ered the heavens." As he looked and wondered, 
and ''considered,'' a great thought came to him; 
and perhaps he sang the words aloud, 

" When I consider thy heavens, 
The work of thy fingers, 
The moon and the stars, 
62 



A SONG OF THE STAEEY HEAVENS 63 

Which thou hast ordained, 

What is man, 

That thou art mindful of him. 

And the son of man, 

That thou visitest him?" 

Then, as lie still considered the heavens, and 
thought of himself just one man alone on the hill- 
side, and other men asleep in their beds, and all 
so small as compared with all those starry worlds, 
over and over the thought would come to him, 
''What is man, that thou art mindful of him?" 

Perhaps this would be all he thought the first 
night; and then, as he sat there night after night 
considering the heavens, thinking of all the won- 
ders of the starry world and of man's littleness, 
the thought would come to him that God had given 
man glory and honor, and set him above all His 
earthly creatures, and again he would break out 
into song. ''What is man, that thou art mindful 
of him?" he would sing; "and yet" 

"Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels; 
Thou hast crowned him with glory and honor; 
Thou hast given him dominion over the works of 

thy hands; 
Thou hast put all things under his feet; 
All sheep and oxen, and the beasts of the field, 
The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea; 
Whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas." 



64 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

And then in closing he would give glory to God 
who made man and made the starry heavens, as he 
sings, 

"O Lord, our Lord, 
How excellent is thy name 
In all the earth 1" 



WHAT THE HEAVENS ARE TELLING 
{A Shepherd's Song) 

David the shepherd boy, the ''sweet psalmist of 
Israel," sat on a hillside watching his sheep and 
often looking up to the sky, gazing at the stars by 
night and at the sun by day, and thinking about 
God, who made heaven and earth, who ''eounteth 
the number of the stars," and " eaUeth them all 
by their names." 

As he sat there day after day and night after 
night, it seemed to him that the heavens were tell- 
ing him a story about God who made ''the sun to 
rule by day, ' ' and ' ' the moon and stars to rule by 
night." 

*' The heavens are telling the glory of God," 

he sang; for only a singer would have had such 
picture thoughts of the sky ; then, as he sang those 
words, another thought came to him, and again he 
sang, 

" The sky is showing God's handiwork." 

I think perhaps he sang those words over and 
65 



66 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

over ; and then, as he sat there with his sheep day- 
after day, a new thought came to him ; it seemed as 
though the days were talking together, one day 
telling to another stories about God and His won- 
derful works; and once more he sang, ^'Day talks 
unto day, and the nights tell one another wonder- 
ful things about God. ' ' Perhaps the next evening 
as he watched his flocks he put his song into words 
something like those that we read in our Bible to- 
day, and sang, 

" The heavens are telling the glory of God, 
And the sky is showing us His handiwork; 
Day is speaking unto day, 
And night unto night is showing forth knowledge. 

He listened, but he could hear no words; and yet 
he felt that his song was true, and once more he 
sang, 

"There is no speech nor language; 
Their voice is not heard; 
Yet their line is gone out 
Through all the earth, 
And their words to the end of the 
world." 

Perhaps it was in the early morning while he 
was watching for the sunrise that the next thought 
came to him; he seemed to have a picture in his 



WHAT THE HEAVENS AEE TELLING 67 

mind of the sun having his home in a tent among 
the stars, and coming every morning out of his 
door in the sky, and rejoicing as a strong man to 
ran a race, way across the heavens from one end 
to the other, and then at night going back to his 
tent among the stars, only to start ont the next day 
and run his race again ; and once more he sang, 

" In them hath he set a tent for the sun, 
Which is as a Jbridegroom 
Coming out of his chamber, 
Rejoicing as a strong man to run a race. 
His going forth is from 
The end of the heavens, 
And his circuit unto the ends of it; 
There is nothing hid from the heat thereof." 

Many other thoughts came to that lonely man on 
the hillside, and he put them all into his song, 
which we call the nineteenth Psalm, thoughts 
about God's law, and the blessings that come from 
obedience to it, and prayers for help to obey it; 
and then he closes his song with the prayer, which 
is good for all of us to pray, 

" Let the words of my mouth 
And the meditation of my heart, 
Be acceptable in thy sight, 
O Lord, my strength and my redeemer." 



DAVID'S STORY ABOUT HIS SON 
ABSALOM 

(Father-Love) 

Of all my sons I think I loved Absalom the best, 
though I am afraid I did not always show my love 
in the wisest manner. He was so tall, so handsome, 
so brave ! How could I help loving him ? 

He had grieved me in many ways before he stole 
away my kingdom ; but I think the more he grieved 
me, the more I loved him, and longed to bring him 
back into right ways. But he seemed to think only 
of himself and his own wishes. 

There came a time when he wanted the kingdom 
for himself, and he had no thought for the father 
who loved him so. He so wanted to be a king him- 
self that he deliberately set himself to win away 
the hearts of my people from their rightful king. 
It was easy to make them love him, for he made 
himself very friendly with every one. Often he 
said to them, '^If I were king, such things as you 
complain of should not be allowed in the kingdom. 
I would see that every wrong was righted ; I would 
be a real friend to all my people''; and, as he 

68 



DAVID^S STOEY OF ABSALOM 69 

talked in his pleasant way, it was easy for them 
to believe him. 

When he thought the right time had come, he 
tried to cover his wickedness with a cloak of good- 
ness. He asked that he might go up to Hebron to 
pay a vow that he had made unto God ; but I think 
he forgot all about the vow when he reached He- 
bron, for I never heard of his fulfilling it. He had 
himself proclaimed king, and many people cheered 
for him, and I had to hurry away from Jerusalem ; 
but I loved him still, for I was his father. 

When my soldiers went out to battle against 
him, I charged them over and over again, ''Deal 
gently, for my sake, with the young man, even 
with Absalom." But, alas! I never saw my dear 
son again. When the messengers came hurrying 
back to tell me of the victory, my first question 
was, ''Is the young man Absalom safe?'' Sor- 
rowfully they told me that he was dead, for they 
knew how I loved him; and I went up alone into 
the little chamber over the gate to mourn for my 
dear son, for he was very dear to me though he 
had been so wicked. 

Then the victory was turned into mourning, for 
I could not rejoice with my people when my dear 
son had been killed; and the people walked about 
sorrowfully as if there had been defeat instead of 



70 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

victory, for I only covered my face, and mourned, 
''0 my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! 
would God I had died for thee, Absalom, my 
son, my son!'^ 

I kept on with my mourning and wailing for my 
son until General Joab had to remind me that I 
was a king as well as a father, and with a sorrow- 
ful heart I went back to my kingdom and my 
people. 

I have often wondered whether Absalom ever 
knew how much I loved him. To the very last I 
would have forgiven him and helped him if he 
would have let me. I wonder whether other boys 
know how their fathers love them and want to help 
them. A father's love is too deep and strong and 
true to be lightly forgotten or thrown away. Al- 
ways believe that your father loves you, however 
he shows it or forgets to show it ; and try to show 
him that you love him too. Believe always the 
words that Solomon wrote, for they are very true, 

*'A wise son maketh a glad father/' 



THE BIBLE THAT WAS LOST AND FOUND 
AGAIN 

{A story of promises made to God) 

If yon and I had lived hnndreds of years ago, in 
the days of King Josiah, in the land that we now 
call the Holy Land, we might have gone to a won- 
derful meeting, and we might have heard some 
wonderful words read from a book which every 
one seemed to think was very precious. 

We should have gone to the temple, where all the 
people worshipped, and we should have seen the 
king himself standing by one of the pillars of the 
temple, while a very great multitude of people 
stood around listening. Perhaps we should have 
asked softly, from some man who stood near, why 
all these people had gathered, and what was the 
book to which they were all so eager to listen. 
And I am sure we should have looked with wonder 
at the great company of priests and prophets, of 
royal people and common people; and we should 
have been very eager to know what had happened 
to bring together so great a company. 

And then I think that some one who stood near 

71 



72 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

would have told us that a book had been found in 
the temple, a book that had been lost for many 
years, and that this was God's book, and God's 
laws were written in it ; and it also told of the re- 
wards that God had promised to those who kept 
His laws, and of punishments for those who dis- 
obeyed them. I think that this man who stood 
near us would have said that he wanted very much 
to hear God's laws and obey them, and perhaps he 
would have asked us to be very quiet that we might 
hear them read. 

And then I think we should have listened 
eagerly, for I hope that we too should have wanted 
to know God's laws and obey them. As we lis- 
tened, we might perhaps have heard a priest, or 
one of the prophets, read in a loud voice, very dis- 
tinctly, some of the words that we can read for 
ourselves to-day in the book of Deuteronomy, clos- 
ing, it may be, with some such words as these : 

^' Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord 
your God. See, I have set before thee life and good, 
and death and evil, in that I command thee this 
day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, 
and to keep his commandments. Keep, therefore, 
the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye 
may prosper in all that ye do. ' ' 

And then, when the reading was ended, we 



BIBLE WAS LOST AND FOUND AGAIN 73 

should have seen the king in his royal robes, and 
all the nobles, and the priests, and the common 
people, promise before the Lord, that 'Svith all 
their heart and soul they would perform the words 
of this covenant that are written in this book"; 
and I hope we should have joined with them in 
that promise; and that would have meant just 
what we promise in our Christian Endeavor 
pledge. May the Lord help us all to keep our 
promises ! 



STORY OF A COVETOUS MAN 
^^Thou Shalt Not Covet'' 
(As Gehazi might tell it) 

I WAS the servant of a prophet. I lived with 
him day by day, and watched his daily life ; and I 
noticed that he never seemed to think of himself, 
but only of others whom he might help. 

Now it happened, through the word of the Lord, 
that a great man came to my master's home. He 
was a Syrian captain, who had some time before, 
among other Hebrew prisoners of war, brought 
home a little maiden who waited upon his wife. 
She was a faithful little maid, and, being sorry for 
the great captain who was suffering from the aw- 
ful disease of leprosy, had said one day to her mis- 
tress, ^^ Would God my lord were with the prophet 
that is in Samaria; for he would recover him of 
his leprosy." And so through this kindly thought 
of hers the great Syrian captain had come to my 
master to be cured of his leprosy. 

When he came with his chariots and horsemen 
in great splendor, I was filled with envy; and I 
wished I could have some of his money and his 

74 



STORY OF A COVETOUS MAN 75 

power. My master did not even trouble to go out 
and speak to him, but sent a messenger to tell him 
to go and wash seven times in the Jordan and he 
would be healed; for Elislia was sure that, if in 
this way he would show his faith in God, then God 
would heal him. 

Captain Naaman was at first quite indignant, 
and asked why he could not just as well bathe in 
one of the rivers in his own country ; but his serv- 
ants persuaded him to do just what Elisha had 
said, and it was not long before he came back from 
the Jordan a very different man, for he was now 
strong and well without a trace of leprosy. 

The great captain was very grateful ; and he had 
come back, not only to say, ''Thank you,^' but also 
to say that through this wonderful miracle he had 
come to believe in Elisha 's God. ''Behold, now I 
know,'' he said, "that there is no God in all the 
earth but in Israel; now, therefore, I pray thee, 
take a blessing of thy servant. ' ' 

I began to wonder what kind of a present he 
would give, and to wish he would give me some- 
thing too. But Elisha said, "As the Lord liveth, 
before whom I stand, I will receive nothing.'' 

The captain earnestly urged him to take a pres- 
ent of some kind, but Elisha would not. He had 
not healed him for money. So Captain Naaman 



76 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

went away with his chariot and his horses and all 
his soldiers, and gave my master nothing. I was 
much displeased, for I coveted his money. I knew 
the commandments, and I knew that one of them 
was, ''Thou shalt not covet"; but I did not stop 
to think of that. I was like many people who live 
to-day. I wanted something that was not mine, 
and I wanted it so much that I was willing to do 
anything to get it. My first sin was coveting what 
was my neighbor's, and my second was lying. I 
ran after Captain Naaman as fast as I could ; and, 
when he saw me coming, he stopped, and asked 
w^hat I wanted. Without stopping a moment to 
think I said, ''My master has sent me, because two 
young men, sons of the prophets, have just come ; 
and he would be glad if you would give them a 
talent of silver and two changes of garments." He 
was very generous, and insisted on my taking two 
talents of silver, and the garments, and sent two 
of his servants back with me to carry the gifts. 

That did not suit me very well, for I was afraid 
Elisha would see them; so, when we were nearly 
back, I told them they need not trouble to go the 
rest of the way; I would carry the gifts myself. 
So they gave them to me and went away; and I 
hid them in a safe place, and then went in to wait 
upon my master as usual. 



STOEY OF A COVETOUS MAN 77 

I was much disturbed when my master said, 
'* Where have you been, Gehazi?'' I thought I 
just had to tell another lie then to cover up the 
first one; so I said, ''I have not been anywhere/' 
My first sin of coveting had led now to two 
other sins, for I had told two lies, and had also 
done something that was very much like stealing 
in keeping for myself what Captain Naaman 
thought he was giving to Elisha. 

My sin was great, and my punishment had al- 
ready begun; for I now had no pleasure in the 
things I had coveted and lied for. But I had to 
endure another punishment, for Elisha said, ''Did 
not my heart go with you when the man turned 
again from his chariot to meet you? Is this a 
time to receive money and gifts T' Then he said 
that I should have to bear the leprosy that had 
been Naaman 's, and I went out from his presence 
a leper. 

I know now that, even if I had not had such an 
awful punishment, I should never have enjoyed 
the things I had coveted; for my conscience 
troubled me from the moment I took the gifts, and 
I mshed them back. I do not wonder now that 
afterward Jesus Himself said to a man who cov- 
eted riches, ''Take heed, and beware of covetous- 
ness; for a man's life consisteth not in the abun- 



78 BIBLE AUTOBIOGRAPHIES 

dance of the things which he possesseth/ ' I know 
that is true now, and I know that the man who 
breaks the tenth commandment is not nearly so 
happy as the man who does not covet, but has 
learned that the Bible is right in saying, 

''Let your conversation be without covet ousness, 
and be content with such things as ye have. ' ' 



A STORY OF ANGEL CHARIOTS 
{A Lesson in Trusty A Word Picture) 

If you and I had lived away back in the days 
of ''once upon a time," in the land of Israel, we 
might have made a visit to the prophet Elisha in 
the little hill town called Dothan ; and there I think 
we should have learned a lesson in trust that we 
could never forget. 

Perhaps we should have heard the young man 
who was Elisha 's servant getting up very early one 
morning to go up on the hilltop, and we might have 
followed him. If we had seen him looking off 
anxiously over the plain, I think we should have 
looked with him, and then we should have seen 
what he saw. There was a beautiful view to be 
seen from that hiUtop in northern Syria; but he 
was not looking at the view, for there, just below 
us, we should have seen a great company of sol- 
diers and horsemen and chariots, surrounding the 
hill on all sides, so that no one could get away from 
the city. No wonder he looked anxious and 
troubled, and I think we should have been troubled 
too as we asked him why they were there. 

79 



80 BIBLE AUTOBIOGKAPHIES 

I suppose he would have told us then that all 
that great army had come out against one man ; for 
they were all afraid of the prophet Elisha, and 
those Syrian generals and soldiers felt that they 
could never conquer the Israelites so long as 
Elisha, the man of God, was there to help them 
and advise them. 

As we saw the young man looking so anxious, I 
think you and I should have felt more and more 
afraid, and we should have asked him whether 
there were soldiers enough in the little city to de- 
fend it, and perhaps his answer would have been 
something like this : ' ^ 0, no, there is only a hand- 
ful of soldiers here; and, even if there were many 
more, my master would not call them out ; he just 
trusts in God to take care of him, and he always 
feels sure that God will do just what is best for 
him; so he never seems to be afraid of anything. 
No, there is nothing we can do; they will surely 
kill my master, and probably all the rest of us 
too." And then I think you and I might have 
been so frightened that we should have wished we 
had not come to Dothan, and we should have hur- 
ried with the young man to Elisha, and shonld 
have listened anxiously for Elisha 's answer as the 
young man asked, '^Alas! my master, what shall 
we dor' 



A STOEY OF ANGEL CHAEIOTS 81 

And then, as we looked at Elisha, with his white 
hair and his calm, trustful face, I think we should 
have grown trustful too, even though we did not 
see how help could come to us. How surprised 
we should have been when he answered, ''Don't 
be afraid ; for they that are with us are more than 
they that are with them.'' What could he mean? 
How could there be more with us in this defence- 
less little city than there were with those generals 
down below? 

And then what do you think Elisha did ? Why 
he just lifted up his eyes to heaven, and spoke to 
God, as if God were right there. ''Lord, I pray 
thee, open his eyes that he may see, ' ' he said ; and 
I think we should all have felt that the Lord was 
with us there, and that we could trust Him to take 
care of us. And then, if the Lord had opened our 
eyes as well as those of the young man, we should 
have seen just what he saw ; for ' ' the Lord opened 
the eyes of the young man, and he saw; and, be- 
hold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots 
of fire round about Elisha." 

And so we should have learned the same lesson 
of trust that the young man learned, as we looked 
at the angel guards and the fiery chariots all round 
about Elisha; and I hope we should have learned 
to feel as Elisha did, that God can always take care 



82 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

of us, whether by angel guards or in some other 
way. We cannot see the angel guards round about 
us; but I think perhaps there may be angels 
around us all the time, watching us and guarding 
us. Let us try, then, always to ''trust and obey''; 
and let us always mean those words when we sing 
them. 



A BRAVE QUEEN 

{As Esther might have told the story) 

We were all very much interested when we 
heard that the king had ordered that all the fair 
young maidens in all the provinces should be gath- 
ered together and brought to Shushan the palace, 
and that the maiden who should please the king 
would be cro\\aied as queen. In every home peo- 
ple were talking of the royal proclamation, and 
wondering who would be the queen. 

I was surprised when my cousin Mordecai 
brought me to Shushan, and much more surprised 
when after a time I was told that the king had 
chosen me to be his queen. I was only a Jewish 
maiden, and had never dreamed that such an honor 
would come to me. My cousin Mordecai, who had 
taken care of me ever since I was a little child, 
advised me not to say to any one that I was a 
Jewess; and, because I loved him and knew that 
he was wiser than I, I obeyed him in the palace, 
as I had obeyed him at home. It was a great com- 
fort to me in the palace to know that I had a faith- 
ful friend outside, whom I could always trust. 

83 



84 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

One day my servants told me sad news about 
Mordeeai. They said that he had put on sack- 
cloth and ashes, which was always a sign of mourn- 
ing, and that he had gone out into the midst of 
the city, crying with a loud and bitter cry. He 
had come, they said, even before the king's gate, 
though no one might enter into the king's gate 
clothed with sackcloth. They told me, too, that 
many of the Jews were fasting and weeping and 
wailing, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. I 
was very much grieved when I heard this, and I 
sent other clothing to Mordeeai, and told my serv- 
ants to ask him to take off the sackcloth; but he 
would not receive the clothing I sent. 

Then I sent Hatach, one of the king's chamber- 
lains, who had been appointed to attend on me, 
and asked him to find out what the trouble was. 
Then Mordeeai sent me word that the wicked Ha- 
man had persuaded the king to make a decree that 
all the Jews in the whole land should be put to 
death. Mordeeai said that it was my duty to go 
to the king and plead for my people. I was very 
much frightened when I heard this message, and 
I sent Hatach back to say to Mordeeai, ^^All the 
king's servants, and the people of the king's prov- 
inces, do know, that whosoever, whether man or 
woman, shall come unto the king into the inner 



A BEAVE QUEEN 85 

court, who is not called, there is one law of his to 
put him to death, except such to whom the king 
shall hold out the golden sceptre, that he may live ; 
but I have not been called to come in unto the king 
these thirty days/^ 

I hoped that, when Mordecai knew that I might 
be killed if I should go in to see the king without 
being called, he would send me word that I had 
better not go; but, when his answer came, it was 
something like this : ^ ^ You need not think that you 
will escape any more than all the Jews, even 
though you are the queen. If you will not try 
to save your people, we may possibly find help in 
some other way; but I truly think that God has 
brought you to the kingdom for such a time as 
this." Then I sent this message to Mordecai: 
* ' Please ask all the Jews to pray for me, and I and 
my maidens will pray ; and after three days I will 
go to the king and ask him to save my people ; and, 
if I must die, then I will die.'' 

For three days I prayed for courage to do what 
was right, and then, though I was very much 
afraid, I put on my very prettiest dress, and went 
to the king's palace. As I stood there before 
the king, frightened and trembling, wondering 
whether he would hold out the golden sceptre to 
me or would order me to be killed, he smiled, and 



86 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

held out his sceptre. Then I invited the king and 
the wicked Hainan to a banquet; and, while they 
were there together, I told the king how Haman 
had plotted against my people. The king was 
very angry with Haman, and ordered him put to 
death ; and my people were saved. 

So my life was spared, after all, and my people 
were saved ; and the Jews had a great day of glad- 
ness and feasting, and they decreed that the ' ' days 
of Purim," as they called them, should always be 
kept, that every year, in every Jewish family in 
every land, they should celebrate two days, ''as 
the days wherein the Jews rested from their ene- 
mies, and the month which was turned unto them 
from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a 
good day; that they should make them days of 
feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to 
another, and gifts to the poor." 

To this day the Jews in every land celebrate the 
feast of Purim in memory of that happy day. I 
am so glad to be remembered as the queen who 
saved her people. But what if I had failed be- 
cause I was afraid? I am glad I could say what 
you can always say when you are afraid, 

'^In God have I put my trust; 
I will not be afraid what man can do unto me/^ 



A STORY ABOUT LENDING UNTO THE 
LORD 

{As Job might have told it) 

I WAS a rich man who lived in the land of Uz. 
I had ten children who were the joy of my heart, 
and I had great possessions, including thousands 
of sheep and camels and oxen, and many servants. 
Although there were many around me who wor- 
shipped idols, yet I was one that feared God, and 
turned away from evil, and tried to do what was 
right in God's sight. Every day I offered sacri- 
fices to God, and prayed for my children, and 
asked God's forgiveness for any sins they might 
have committed. 

We were all very prosperous and happy, but 
there came a time when God saw fit to try me. In 
one day all my children were killed in a sad acci- 
dent; a band of enemy soldiers came up against 
my servants, and carried away my oxen and asses ; 
my sheep were struck by lightning and many of 
them killed; and the Chaldeans carried away my 
camels, and killed the servants who had been 
guarding them. 

87 



88 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

All this was a great sorrow to me ; and yet that 
was not all; soon I had another trouble to bear, 
for I was attacked by a very painful disease, and 
had to endure great suffering. 

Then some of my friends came to comfort me, 
and they said that it was because of my sins that 
all this trouble had been sent upon me. They said 
that, though people had thought I was good, I 
must really have been living a wicked life in se- 
cret, and God was punishing me ; but I knew they 
were wrong in that, for I had honestly tried to live 
a life that was pleasing to God. I told them of 
the life I had lived before them in the land of Uz, 
and how people had honored me and loved me. 
' ' When the ear heard me, ' ' I said, ^ ' then it blessed 
me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to 
me, because I delivered the poor that cried, and 
the fatherless, and him that had none to help him. 
I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. 
I was a father to the poor, and the blessing of him 
that was ready to perish came upon me." 

I did not mean to boast about my kindness to the 
poor ; but I told them these things that they might 
know that I was really trying to live such a life as 
God would approve, and that my troubles could not 
have been sent as a punishment for sin. I learned 
many things about God that I might never have 



LENDING UNTO THE LOED 89 

learned except for my troubles; and at last I was 
able to say unto the Lord, ' ' I have heard of thee by 
the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth 
thee." 

I was always glad for everything I had done to 
help the poor and suffering, and in the end I 
learned how true it is that ' ' he that hath pity upon 
the poor lendeth unto the Lord ; and that which he 
hath given will he pay him again. ' ' The Lord did 
repay me ; He gave me children, and friends, and 
much happiness in the later years of my life ; and I 
can say as the wise man said long after, ^'He that 
hath mercy on the poor, happy is he. ' ' 



A STORY OF A MAN WHO TRIED TO RUN 
AWAY FROM GOD 

{As Jonah might tell the story) 

God's call came to me very plainly, and I knew 
He wanted me to go to Nineveh, and warn the 
people that their city was to be destroyed; but I 
did not want to go. It may have been partly be- 
cause I was a coward, for I knew how great and 
wicked a city it was ; and the people might be very 
angry, and perhaps try to kill me. But I am 
afraid it was partly because I felt that God's warn- 
ing was meant to lead them to repentance, that He 
might pardon them; and I did not really want 
them to be forgiven, for, like all the Jews, I hated 
the Ninevites. And so I shirked my duty, and 
tried to run away from God. 

I don't suppose I really thought that I could 
hide away from God, but I just wanted to get as 
far away from Nineveh as I could; and then per- 
haps I should forget God's call to me, and could 
put those wicked people out of my mind. 

But God does not want us to put the wicked out 
of our mind. He wants us to show them the way 

90 



TEIED TO EUN AWAY FEOM GOD 91 

back to God, and He is calling every one to-day 
just as truly as He called me, to do all that we can 
to help people who have wandered away from Him 
to find the way back, whether they are in heathen 
lands or in our own land. 

I went down to Joppa, and, finding a ship going 
to Tarshish, I paid my fare, and went on board; 
but I did not get away from my conscience or 
from God. I vv^as so worn out with fighting against 
God that I went down below, and soon fell asleep ; 
I had found, as many others have found, that it is 
harder to fight against one 's plain duty than to do 
it. I did not sleep long, though ; for a great storm 
came up, and I was awakened by the frightened 
sailors, who did not know what to do. They had 
prayed to their own gods, but found no comfort 
or help there. They had cast out much of their 
cargo into the sea to lighten the ship, but it did no 
good. What should they do next ? They had con- 
cluded that, if I would pray to my God, He might 
perhaps be more powerful, or more willing to help 
them; and so they came to me, saying, ^* Arise; 
call upon thy God, if so be that God will think 
upon us that we perish not. ' ' They did not know 
that God is thinking of us all the time, and is al- 
ways waiting for us to call upon Him. 

They asked me many questions, too, for they 



92 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

thought that it must be for my sake that this storm 
had come upon them. Then I said to them plainly, 
''I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of 
heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry 
land/' I confessed to them that I had been try- 
ing to run away from my duty, and advised them 
to throw me into the sea, as I believed that if they 
did that God would save their lives. Very reluc- 
tantly they did as I said, but not until they too 
had prayed to my God, the true God who made 
heaven and earth. And so, though I had been un- 
willing to be a missionary to the people of Nine- 
veh, I had become a willing missionary to those 
heathen sailors, and they had learned something 
of the true God and His power. 

Then they threw me down into the sea, and the 
Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow me up ; 
for three days God kept me alive inside the fish, 
and then I was once more cast forth, but this time 
on the dry land. 

If you want to know how I felt when I was sink- 
ing way down into the depths of the sea, and the 
floods compassed me about, and the seaweeds were 
wrapped about my head, then you must read the 
prayer that I prayed and afterward wrote down 
that you might read it. I was like many people 
who are alive now ; when I was in trouble, I prayed 



TEIED TO RUN AWAY FEOM GOD 93 

uiito the Lord. I think perhaps that is one great 
reason why God allows trouble to come upon us, 
because it drives us to Him. If we always lived a 
life of prayer, I do not believe we should have so 
many troubles ; and we should certainly have more 
grace to bear the troubles that must come. 

And so I learned the lesson that every one must 
learn in some way, that we cannot get away from 
the presence of God, that He is always looking 
down upon us; that ^^his eyes behold, his eyelids 
try, the children of men." I learned, too, that it 
is always harder to shirk our duty than it is to do 
it. The only right way for any of us is to ask God 
every day what He would have us do, and then do 
it. And so my last message to you to-day is, 

''Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it/' 



THE STORY OP THE FIRST CHRISTMAS 

{As one of the shepherds might have told it) 

We were just a little company of shepherds, 
tending our sheep in the fields outside the little 
town of Bethlehem. It was a cold night, and we 
had kindled a little fire of sticks, that we might 
warm ourselves once in a while ; we sat around the 
fire in the starlight talking together, while two or 
three of the men, tired with the day's work, had 
fallen asleep. It happened that much of our talk 
that night had been about the Coming One, of 
whom we had often heard the rabbis speak. They 
said He would be born in Bethlehem, and some 
thought it would be soon, while others felt sure 
that it would not be in our time. 

I wondered how He would come, and what He 
would be like, and what He would do for the 
world. Some thought He would come in splendor 
as a great king, and would rule righteously over 
our people Israel, and that we should no longer be 
oppressed by cruel rulers and Roman tax-gath- 
erers ; but I was doubtful. It did not seem to me 
that the promises and prophecies which I had 
heard the rabbis read in our synagogues meant 

94 



THE STOKY OF THE FIEST CHEISTMAS 95 

just that, and I had given much thought to it as I 
watched my flocks by night. Of one thing I felt 
sure; I knew that I should love Him and serve 
Him; and 0, how I hoped He would come in my 
time! 

At last we grew drowsy, and the rest of the men 
fell asleep, while I sat quietly by the fire, thinking 
of all we had talked of. Suddenly, as I sat there 
in the firelight and the starlight, a wonderful light 
shone round about me, more wonderful and glori- 
ous than anything I had ever seen. I roused the 
sleeping shepherds, and we all saw the light, and 
were afraid. What was it, and what did it mean? 

While we wondered and trembled, suddenly we 
saw a beautiful angel standing in the midst of the 
wonderful light; and he called to us in a loud, 
clear voice. ^'Fear not,'' he said; ^'I bring you 
good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all 
people." And then He told us that the little 
child Christ had already come, and we should find 
the little baby lying in a manger in a stable in 
Bethlehem. Then, as suddenly as the angel him- 
self had come, there came a whole choir of angels, 
singing the most wonderful song ever heard on 
earth. 

"Glory to God in the highest; 
And on earth peace, good will toward men," 



96 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIE8 

they sang; and then, all in a moment, the angels 
were gone, and we were left alone. 

For a few moments we stood there quietly, wait- 
ing to see whether the angels would come again; 
but all was peaceful, beautiful starlight as before. 
Then I started up, and said, ''Come, let us go to 
Bethlehem, and see the thing which has come to 
pass, which the Lord has made known to us. ' ' 

You may be sure that we hurried as fast as our 
feet could carry us, and we found Mary and Jo- 
seph, and the blessed Christ-child lying in a man- 
ger, just as the angel had said; and we bowed 
down and worshipped the Child. 

After telling our story of the angels, and talking 
with Joseph and Mary, we went back to our sheep, 
but slowly and thoughtfully, stopping to tell the 
wonderful ''good tidings of great joy" to every 
one we met, for it was early morning by this time. 
We were all "glorifying and praising God'' all the 
way back, for all that we had heard and seen that 
holy night. We could never forget that first 
Christmas, as we call the blessed Christ-child's 
birthday now, and we always remembered the an- 
gels' song and message; all our lives after that we 
tried, so far as we could, to carry joy to all people, 
and to help make peace on earth, good will to men. 
That is what the blessed Saviour wants us all to 



THE STOEY OP THE FIEST CHRISTMAS 97 

do all our lives, and every time His birthday comes 
around it should remind us once more of the work 
He came to do, and the work He wants us to do 
for Him. 



FEIENDS OF CHRIST 

{As Andrew might Jiave told the story) 

I WAS one of the very first of Christ's disciples, 
and I have always been so glad, because I had His 
friendship so much the longer. I only wish I 
might have known Him even when He was a boy, 
for I am sure He was a boy that every one loved. 

I was only a common fisherman, living near the 
Sea of Galilee and going out in my boat every day 
with my brother Simon; but I had often thought 
about the Coming One who was to be our Saviour, 
and had longed to know more about Him, and had 
wondered whether it could be possible that I 
should ever see Him. 

We had often heard about John the Baptist and 
about the crowds who went to hear him preach, 
and how he baptized a great many of them if they 
were sorry for their sins and wanted to do right. 
Sometimes we used to go and listen to his preach- 
ing, and I called myself one of his disciples. 

One day I was standing with John, one of my 
near neighbors, listening to John the preacher, 

98 



FEIENDS OF CHEIST 99 

when all at once he pointed to a young man who 
was passing by, and said, ''Behold the Lamb of 
God, that taketh away the sin of the world!'' As 
soon as we heard that, John and I followed after 
Him that we might know where He lived. Pres- 
ently He turned, and seeing us following Him, 
said, ''What are you seeking?" John said, "Mas- 
ter, where do you live?'' "Come and see," He 
said ; and we went with Him. As He talked with 
us, we felt sure that this was really the Christ. He 
let us stay with Him all that day, both hearing 
Him and asking Him questions; and from that 
time we always counted ourselves among His 
friends. 

As soon as I could I went and found my brother 
Simon, and I said to him, "We have found the 
Christ!" And I brought him to Jesus, and he 
too believed on Him. It was not long before 
others came to Him, and after a time He chose 
twelve of His followers, who should be His special 
friends and be near Him always, and I was so glad 
that He, chose me for one of the twelve ! He said 
He had called us that we might be with. Him, and 
that He might send us forth to do His errands; 
and often He sent us out to preach and to teach, 
and others learned to believe on Him through our 
teaching. 



100 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

So long as He lived on earth we followed Him, 
until that very last night, when He was betrayed 
into the hands of His enemies; and then — I have 
always felt so sorry and ashamed to remember that 
we all forsook Him and fled ! And to think that I, 
who was one of His first followers, was one of the 
first to rnn away ! But He forgave us, and blessed 
us, and gave us work to do for Him after He was 
gone; and He promised to be always with us to 
help us, even though we could not see Him. ''Lo, 
I am with you alway, even unto the end of the 
world," He said; and many times we felt His 
presence with us when we could not see Him. 
That promise is for all those who are His friends 
to-day just as much as it was for us. 

I was never able to do as much for Him as my 
brother Simon, whom Jesus named Peter ; indeed, 
many of the others did more than I could do, for I 
was one of the quiet ones, who could not talk as 
Peter could, but I have always been glad to re- 
member that it was I who brought Peter to Christ, 
and that, when our Master fed the five thousand, I 
was the one to suggest that the little lad's loaves 
and fishes might be used by Christ, 

Sometimes, when I have felt that I was not 
worthy to be called His friend, I have been glad to 
remembfer that He once said, ''You are my friends, 



PEIENDS OF CHEIST 101 

if you do whatsoever I command you;'^ and I like 
to think that all those who are trying now to keep 
His commandments have a right to call themselves 
His friends. 



FOLLOWING CHRIST 

{As Matthew might tell the story if he could 
come back) 

I WAS a tax-gatherer, about my regular business 
in the custom-house when Jesus called me to follow 
Him. I had heard of the wonderful things He 
did, and the wonderful words He spoke, and I had 
longed to see Him. I had heard that He had 
called some of the fishermen on the lake to be His 
disciples. Just common, every-day fishermen they 
were; but I know they must have been earnest, 
faithful men, or He would not have chosen them. 
How I wished He would call me! But that, I 
thought, could never be, for all men despised me 
because of my business. 

One day as I sat at the receipt of custom not far 
from the Sea of Galilee, taking the tax money from 
the many travellers who journeyed from Damas- 
cus to the seashore with their goods, I saw a small 
boat come across the lake and land near Caper- 
naum. Soon a great crowd gathered around a 
stranger who had come in the boat, and I won- 
dered whether it might perhaps be Jesus of Naza- 

102 



I 



FOLLOWING CHEIST 103 

reth, for I knew that He now called Capernaum 
*'His own city.'' But they were too far away for 
me to see plainly, and I could not leave my busi- 
ness. 

A few days later I saw a great crowd coming 
from Capernaum down ^^the way of the sea.'' I 
asked a man what was going on, and he said, 
''Jesus of Nazareth is passing by; the crowds fol- 
low Him." This was my opportunity to see Him, 
and I was so glad ! He saw me sitting there at my 
money-table, and to my great surprise and joy He 
called me. You may be sure it did not take me long 
to put away my money and my table and follow 
Him. I invited Him to a feast at my house, and 
He honored me by coming; and, although the 
Pharisees scoffed, saying, ''Why does He eat with 
publicans and sinners?" I did not care for their 
scoffs, for He had called me; and from that day I 
followed Him as one of His disciples. 

A good many years afterward, when I had read 
some of Paul's letters to the churches, I said to 
myself: "Why does not some one write the story 
of the Master's life? Why should not Z do it?" 
I was quite used to writing because of my former 
business, and why should I not use my pen to 
write something worth while, that all the world 
might read the story of Jesus? 



104 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

I wrote especially for the Jews, that they might 
know that Jesus was the Messiah who had been 
promised ; and often I quoted for them a prophecy 
that had been fulfilled. But of all the stories of 
His life that I wrote I liked best to write of the 
times when He called us to be disciples, and we left 
all and followed Him. I like to remember that He 
called Peter and Andrew and John and James 
from their fishing, and me from my custom-house, 
and all of the twelve from their every-day work, 
just as He calls people now, and 0, the difference 
it made in our lives when we heard Him say, *' Fol- 
low me,'' and obeyed His call! 

He is calling you to-day, and, though it is only 
in your hearts that you hear His voice. He is say- 
ing to you now, as He said to me, ''Follow me." 
I gave up all my business and everything that 
might have hindered me, and followed Him. Are 
you ready to give up everything that has hindered 
you, and begin to-day to follow Jesus ? 



HOW JESUS KEPT THE SABBATH 

{As the man with the withered hand might 
have told it) 

I WAS a man with a withered hand, and there 
were many things that other people could do that 
I could not ; always it had been a great trouble and 
hindrance to me, but it could not be cured. 

At last, however, there came a time when I be- 
gan to hear wonderful stories about Jesus of Naza- 
reth; how He always went about doing good, and 
how He had healed many people with different 
kinds of illness; and I began to wonder whether 
He could perhaps make my poor, useless hand 
strong and well again. 

I had heard that, wherever He might be, He 
always went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, 
and the people always crowded there, and listened 
eagerly as He told them of things as God would 
have them; and often I wished that sometime I 
too might see Him and hear Him. 

One day I heard that He had come to Caper- 
naum, and on the Sabbath day I hurried to the 
synagogue, and found Him there teaching the peo- 

105 



106 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

pie *'the things concerning the kingdom.'' I 
crowded to the front, and listened with the rest, 
eager to hear His words, and hoping that I might 
be healed. By and by I noticed that some of the 
Pharisees were looking at Jesus, and others were 
scowling at me, watching to see whether I would 
ask to be healed ; and I knew they would say that 
Jesus was breaking the fourth commandment and 
working on the Sabbath if He healed people on 
that day. 

Jesus did not even wait for me to ask Him, but, 
calling me by name. He said to me, '^ Stand forth.'' 
At once I went forward, and stood there alone in 
the midst of the crowd, while the Pharisees angrily 
watched. Jesus knew what they were thinking, 
though they had not said anything yet; and His 
face was sad as He looked upon them and asked 
sorrowfully, ^ ' Is it right to do good on the Sabbath 
day, or to do evil, to save life, or to kill ? " I think 
they must have felt very much ashamed, for they 
stood there before Him, answering nothing, while 
I was just hoping and hoping that He would heal 
me, whatever they might think or say. Then with 
a loving, sorrowful look He turned to me, saying, 
*' Stretch forth your hand." At once I believed 
that I could do it because He said so, though I 
could not have done it before ; and I stretched out 



HOW JESUS KEPT THE SABBATH 107 

my hand, and immediately it was restored, whole 
and strong as the other one. Oh, how joyful and 
happy I was, and how I thanked Him! But the 
Pharisees were not happy, and I heard afterward 
that they went out and planned how they might 
kill Him. 

Another Sabbath not long afterward I heard 
that He was teaching in a synagogue not far away, 
and I hurried there to listen again to His words. 
There I saw Him heal a poor woman who for 
eighteen years had not been able to stand up 
straight; people said of her '^she was bowed to- 
gether, and could in no wise lift herself up." 
Jesus called her to Him, and laid His hands on 
her ; ' ' and immediately she was made straight, and 
glorified God/' 

Again the Pharisees found fault with Him for 
breaking the Sabbath ; and, not daring to say it to 
Him, they turned to the people, and said, ''There 
are six days in which men ought to work ; in them, 
therefore, come and be healed, and not on the Sab- 
bath day.'' 

Jesus looked at them sadly, and said: ^'You are 
living like hypocrites ; you are only pretending to 
be good. Would not each one of you on the Sab- 
bath day untie your ox or your ass, and lead him 
away to water just because he is thirsty? And 



108 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

ought not this woman, who has been suffering for 
eighteen years, to be loosed from this bond on the 
Sabbath day ? ' ' When He said this, the Pharisees 
were ashamed, and could not answer Him; and 
''all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious 
things that were done by him." 

And so He taught us that the Sabbath was made 
for man ; that it was meant to be a day for rest and 
worship, and a day to do good and not evil. We 
learned, too, that it was His custom to go always 
on the Sabbath day to the synagogue, and I believe 
it always pleases Him to find His children in His 
house on that day ; we know, too, that He likes to 
have us spend the Sabbaths as He did, in doing 
good and helping others, always remembering that 
it is the Lord's day. 



HOW TO BE GREAT: A LESSON FROM A 
LITTLE CHILD 

{As Peter might have told the story) 

We had been travelling through Galilee, and we 
came to Capernaum, and went into my home, 
where I had invited my friends. The Master's 
face was sad as He looked upon us, and asked, 
*'What were you talking about on the way?'' 

We looked at one another, and were silent; for 
with the Master's sad eyes looking into our faces, 
and into our very hearts, it seemed, we were all so 
sorry and ashamed that not one of us was willing 
to tell Him; for on the way we had been quarrel- 
ling and disputing over the question which of us 
was the greatest. 

There was Andrew, who had been one of the 
very first disciples to come to Jesus; and there 
were James and John, whom He loved to have 
near Him; and I felt that He had given special 
tokens of His love for me; and there was Judas, 
who thought he was really the greatest among us 
because he was our treasurer; and so for one rea- 
son and another almost every one of us had felt 

10& 



110 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIE3 

that we had some claim to be the greatest, and 
should have the best place when He should set up 
His kingdom; for we all expected Him to set up 
an earthly kingdom when the right time should 
come. We had had many arguments and much 
discussion about it on the way ; and we had all been 
more or less angry, and had all had selfish feel- 
ings ; and now, with Jesus looking at us, we did not 
want to answer His question ; so we all stood there 
silent and abashed before Him. 

He did not need any answer to His question, 
however, for He knew what was in our hearts just 
as well as He knows what is in your heart to-day. 
''If any man w^ould be first," He said quietly, ''he 
shall be last of all and servant of all." Just then 
one of my little children came running into the 
room, and Jesus took him up in His arms, and 
said, "Except you change your lives and become 
as little children you shall in no wise enter into the 
kingdom of heaven." And then He added, "Who- 
soever therefore shall humble himself as this little 
child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of 
heaven." I wish you could have seen the face of 
that little boy as Jesus held him in His arms and 
spoke these words ; I am sure the boy would never 
forget, as long as he lived, the loving face of the 
Master, or the words He spoke that day; and he 



HOW TO BE GEEAT 111 

would always be glad to remember that once Jesus 
had held him in His arms, and used him to teach a 
lesson to His disciples. 

And so we learned the lesson that it is not those 
who think themselves great, and seek great things 
for themselves, who are truly great in God's sight, 
but those who are humble, and forgetful of them- 
selves, and who try to help others to enter into 
God's kingdom. As long as I lived I could never 
look at that little child again without remember- 
ing the Master's words; and the story has been 
written down in God's book so that you may read 
it, and that you too may remember who are the 
truly great ones in God's sight. 



A BLIND MAN AND HIS NEIGHBORS 

{A Dialogue) 

Looking backward across the years, and far 
away across the seas, to the country which we now 
call the Holy Land, I seem to see very plainly 
something that perhaps to-day we should call a 
moving picture. I seem to see Jesus and His dis- 
ciples walking along one of the streets of Jerusa- 
lem, busily talking as they walk. They meet all 
kinds of people, but the disciples seem specially in- 
terested in a certain blind man, for whom they feel 
a great pity because they know that he has never 
seen the beautiful world around him. 

''Master,'' says Peter, ''who did sin, this man 
or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus 
answers, "It is not because this man has sinned or 
his parents, but that the power of God might be 
shown in him." A little later Jesus says, "As 
long as I am in the world I am the light of the 
world." Then I seem to see Him touching the 
blind man's eyes as He says, "Go, wash in the pool 
of Siloam, ' ' and the blind man walks away. 

Jesus and His disciples go on their way ; and, as 
112 



A BLIND MAN AND HIS NEIGHBOES 113 

in imagination I linger there, I soon see the blind 
man coming back, looking around him with won- 
dering, wide-open eyes, upon the beautiful w^orld 
he has never seen before. A crowd soon gathers 
around him ; and, as I listen, this is what I seem to 
see and hear : 

[The blind man and three of his neighbors come 
forward.] 

First Neighbor, Is not this he that sat and 
begged ? 

Second Neighbor, It is he. 

Third Neighbor, No, but he is like him. 

Blind Man, I am he who was blind. 

First Neighbor. How were your eyes opened? 

Bliiid Man. The man that is called Jesus made 
clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto 
me, *'Go to Siloam and wash"; so I went 
away, and washed, and I received sight. 

Second Neighbor, Where is he? 

Blind Man. I don't know. 

Third Neighbor. Let us take him to the Phari- 
sees. 

[They lead him to one side, where three or four 
Pharisees are standing.] 

First Pharisee. Tell us how you received your 
sight. 



114 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

Blind Man, He put clay upon my eyes, and I 
washed, and do see. 

Second Pharisee. This is the Sabbath day ! 

Third Pharisee, This man is not from God, be- 
cause he does not keep the Sabbath. 

First Pharisee, How can a man that is a sinner 
do such wonders? 

Second Pharisee [to the blind man]. What 
sayest thou of him, that he opened thine 
eyes? 

Blind Man. He is a prophet. 

A Jew. Let us ask his parents about it. 

Second Jew. I don't believe that the man was 
really blind. 

[The blind man^s father and mother come 
forward.] 

First Jew, Is this your son, who you say was 
born blind? 

Second Jew, How then does he now see? 

The Mother [to the father in a low tone]. He 
must tell them himself. I am afraid they will 
put us out of the synagogue if we say that the 
Christ healed him. 

The Father [to the Jews], We know that this 
is our son, and that he was born blind; but 
how it happens that he can see now we do not 
know, or who opened his eyes we know not. 



A BLIND MAK^ AND HIS NEIGHBOES 115 

Ask him. He is of age; he shall speak for 
himself. 

First Pharisee [to the blind man]. Give glory 
to God. We know that this man is a sinner. 

Bli7id Man, Whether he is a sinner I know not. 
One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, 
now I see. 

Second Pharisee, What did he to thee? How 
opened he thine eyes? 

Blind Man, I told you even now, and you 
would not hear. Wherefore would you hear 
it again? Would you also become his dis- 
ciples? 

Third Pharisee, You are his disciple, but we 
are Moses' disciples. We know that God 
spoke to Moses, but as for this man we know 
not whence he is. 

Blind Man, Why, herein is a marvel, that you 
know not whence he is, and yet he opened my 
eyes. We know that God heareth not sin- 
ners ; but, if any man be a worshipper of God 
and do His will, him He heareth. Since the 
world began it was never heard that any one 
opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this 
man were not from God, He could do nothing. 

Third Pharisee, Thou wast altogether born in 
sins, and dost thou teach us? 



116 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

Second Pharisee, Let us cast him out of the 
synagogue. 

They cast him out of the synagogue, and the 
crowd slowly scatters, talking still of the wonder- 
ful miracle. Some one tells Jesus that the man 
has been cast out, and at once Jesus goes and finds 
him, and asks, *^Do you believe on the Son of 
God?" It is no surprise to hear the blind man 
answer, **Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on 
Him?'^ It is very plain from his answer to the 
Pharisees that he is all ready to believe. I like to 
think how his face must have lighted up as Jesus 
said to him, ''Thou hast both seen Him, and it is 
He that talketh with thee.'' And I like to think 
of the man's quick answer, *'Lord, I believe." 
And now, as the story ends, I seem to see the man 
who once was blind kneeling down before his Sa- 
viour, and worshipping Him. May his story help 
us also to believe on the Son of God. 



A MAN WHO WAS A GOOD NEIGHBOR 

{As a bystander might have told it) 

I WAS one of the crowd that was listening to 
Jesns that day when the lawyer came to him ask- 
ing, ''What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" 

''What is written in the law?" asked Jesus. 
"How readest thon?" 

Now the lawyer prided himself on his knowledge 
of the books of the law, and felt quite able to read 
and explain all that was written there. I thought 
he would probably begin to talk about the Ten 
Commandments, but instead of that he repeated a 
shorter statement that he had found in Deuteron- 
omy and Leviticus, which really included all the 
ten. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God," he 
said, "with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, 
and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; 
and thy neighbor as thyself.' ' 

"Thou hast answered right," said Jesus; "this 
do and thou shalt live." 

The lawyer did not seem to feel troubled about 
the first commandment, but he was not quite com- 
fortable in his mind about the second one. How 

117 



118 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

about loving his neighbor? How much did this 
second commandment mean? What did it require 
of him? ''Who is my neighbor?" he asked. 

I was rather glad to hear him ask that question, 
for it did not seem easy to me to love my neighbor 
as well as I loved myself, and I too wanted to know 
the answer to this question ; so I listened eagerly to 
see what He would say. 

But instead of answering the lawyer's question 
Jesus told him a story. ''A certain man was go- 
ing down from Jerusalem to Jericho," He said: 
''and he fell among robbers, who both stripped 
him, and beat him, and departed, leaving him half 
dead." We all knew how dangerous that Jericho 
road was, leading down through narrow, rocky 
gorges, with many good hiding-places for robbers. 
Why, I myself had known a man who had been 
treated in much the same way on this very road; 
and I wondered whether the man of whom Jesus 
spoke was perhaps some one He had known. 

But Jesus went on with His story. "A certain 
priest was going down that way,'' He said; "and, 
when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. ' ' 
I could easily imagine that priest, hurrying home 
from a temple service in Jerusalem, too busy with 
his own affairs, and in too much of a hurry, to stop 
and help this poor man, who was no relation of his. 



AMAN WHO WAS AGOOD NEIGHBOE 119 

I am afraid that we are all like that priest some- 
times, too busy with our own affairs to think much 
about our neighbors, who may be greatly in need 
of help that we could give. I wondered whether I 
should have stopped to help the poor man if I had 
been that priest. 

But, while I was thinking about it, Jesus went 
on with His story. ' ' In like manner a Levite also, 
when he came to the place, and saw him, passed by 
on the other side,'' He said. I could almost see 
the Levite, humming a tune as he walked along; 
for I suppose he had been one of the singers at the 
temple service. I could imagine him saying to 
himself, as he looked at the poor, wounded man: 
''I'm sorry for the poor fellow, but I don't see 
what I can do about it; it isn't really any of my 
business; I don't know the man. He ought to 
have known better than to come do^vn this road 
alone. He will probably die, anyway, and it would 
not do any good for me to stay here till the robbers 
come back and attack me too." Then I fancied I 
could see him crossing over to the other side of the 
road, and hurrying away as fast as he could. 

But, while I was picturing the scene to myself, 
Jesus went on to tell of a Samaritan man who 
came along and helped the poor man, binding up 
his wounds, and carrying him on as far as the inn, 



120 BIBLE AUTOBIOGRAPHIES 

and paying the landlord to take care of him until 
he should be well again. As I listened to the story, 
I wondered again what I should have done if I had 
been there. I am afraid we are all of us like the 
Levite sometimes. We see some one in trouble, 
and we just content ourselves with saying, ''It is 
too bad ! what a pity ! '' and then we go on our way, 
and attend to our own affairs, without even trying 
to help. 

Then Jesus turned to the lawyer and said, 
' ' Which of these men was neighbor to the one that 
fell among the robbers?" The lawyer, who had 
evidently meant to have a long argument, had 
nothing to say for himself. ' ' The man that helped 
him was his neighbor," he said. 

''Go and do thou likewise," said Jesus. That 
was all ; but we had learned our lesson, and I can 
never think of that Jericho road without remem- 
bering that we have neighbors all around us, who 
are waiting, perhaps, for us to show ourselves 
neighborly. I know now that any man who needs 
my help is my neighbor. 



A VISIT FROM JESUS 

{As Martha might have told the story) 

I WAS SO glad when I heard that Jesus was com- 
ing to Bethany! And, when Lazarus started out 
to meet Him, I asked him to beg the Master to 
honor us by coming to our home. Oh, it was such 
a joy to think of His coming! It seemed to me that 
I could not do enough for Him. I wanted to do 
everything I could to honor Him. 

I knew how weary He must be, with the crowd 
always pressing about Him; and He was so kind 
and loving, and so willing always to give His time 
and strength to help all those who asked for His 
help! I wanted to do something for Him that 
would show Him how much I loved Him; so I 
planned just the best meal that I could think of, 
for nothing could be too good for Him. It meant 
a great deal of work, but I did not care how tired 
I might get in working for Him. Mary thought I 
was planning too much ; she was afraid we should 
not have any time to listen to the Master ; and she 
thought perhaps it would please Him better if we 
should get a simpler meal, and have hearts at 

121 



122 BIBLE AUTOBIOGRAPHIES 

leisure to listen to His words. But I thought she 
was wrong, and went on with my preparations; 
and, when the Master came, though I gave Him 
a glad welcome, yet I could hardly stop to speak 
to Him, lest the dinner should be spoiled. 

Mary had helped, and I know now that she did 
not mean to leave me to do more than my share of 
the work; but the Master was speaking, and she 
was eagerly listening, and planning how to live the 
kind of life He talked of ; and I worked on alone ; 
and, though I was working for the Master, my 
heart was full of bitter thoughts about my sister. 

Sometimes the thought came to me that the 
Master would rather I would leave my busy work, 
and listen to His teachings ; but I put the thought 
away, and worked on, till I was so tired and cross 
that I could not stand it any longer; and at last 
I went to the Master, and said, ''Dost Thou not 
care that my sister did leave me to serve alone?" 

What a hard, bitter, mean thing to say ! I knew 
without being told that He would rather have me 
show a loving spirit than get up the best dinner 
that was ever cooked. Oh, I was so ashamed when 
He looked at me so kindly, yet sorrowfully, as if 
He were looking into my very heart! I knew it 
was because He saw the love that was there, as 
well as the bitterness, that His voice was so gentle 



A VISIT FEOM JESUS 123 

and kind, as He told me that I was giving too much 
importance to little things, and that Mary had 
chosen the good part which could not be taken 
away. 

I knew He was right, for she would never forget 
the words she had been listening to, and they 
would help to make her whole life better. I never 
forgot His words to me; and, though afterward 
I had other opportunities to minister to Him, yet 
I never again let myself be so '^cumbered about 
much serving" as to leave no time to listen to His 
words. I always tried after that to put first things 
first, and remembered that the best way to show 
Him that I loved Him was to listen to Him and 
obey Him. 



A STORY OF LOVING-KINDNESS AND 
THANKFULNESS 

{As it might have been told hy one who said, 
''Thank you'') 

We were ten sorrowful men, ''standing afar 
off/ 'and looking wistfully towards a Samaritan 
village. We were sorrowful, and yet our faces 
were lighted up with a gleam of hope. We were 
lepers; but we had heard that Jesus of Nazareth 
could do wonderful things, and that He cared for 
all who were sick or sorrowful; and He was com- 
ing our way. I was a Samaritan, and the other 
nine men were Jews ; and, if we had all been well, 
they would have scorned me, for Jews would have 
nothing to do with Samaritans ; but because we all 
had the same dreadful disease we had become 
friends in our misery. 

Can you think how eagerly we watched as Jesus 
and His disciples drew near? We stood afar off, 
for lepers are not allowed to go near other people ; 
and we all called out as loud as we could, ''Jesus, 
Master, have mercy on us." He came towards us 
with such a loving, pitiful look on His face that I 

124 



A STOEY OF THANKFULNESS 125 

knew He would help us if He could, and some way 
I felt sure that He could. But what do you think 
He said? Why, He just said in a quiet voice, 
''Go show yourselves unto the priests''; and He 
did not say a ivord about healing us. 

We knew the law required that, if a man were 
healed of his leprosy, he should go and show him- 
self to the priest ; and not until the priest himself 
declared him healed could he go about among other 
people. But why did this strange rabbi tell us 
now to go to the priest ? We looked at one another 
doubtfully, and some hesitated; but there was 
really no question in my mind. The moment He 
gave the command I felt that I must go, and that I 
wanted to go, whether He would heal me or not. 
' ' Come, ' ' I said to the others, ' ' let us do just what 
He tells us to do''; and without a word we turned 
and started to go to the priest. 

And then a very wonderful thing happened, for 
as we went we were healed. All at once I felt 
new life coming to me ; and my fingers, which had 
been decaying with the dreadful disease, became 
all in a minute whole and sound. My whole body 
was changed, and I was a well man. We looked at 
one another with joyful faces, hardly believing our 
own eyes, as we saw each man looking well and 
strong. We shouted for joy, and we hurried along 



126 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

as fast as we could in our eagerness to find a priest 
and be pronounced well and sound. So happy 
were we, and so eager, that for a moment we all 
forgot the One who had healed us. 

But we had taken only a few steps when I sud- 
denly stopped and turned back. 

''Where are you going?'' asked the others. 

''I am going back to thank the Master," I said. 

''0, not yet,'' said the others; ''let us see the 
priest first; we will thank Him some other time." 

But my heart was so full that I felt I just must 
thank Him now; and I went back and fell down 
at His feet, thanking Him and praising God. And 
what do you think He said? He looked at me a 
moment, lovingly yet sadly, and said : ' ' Were there 
not ten cleansed ? But where are the nine ? Is this 
stranger, this Samaritan, the only one who has re- 
turned to give glory to God?" and then in a very 
kind and gentle voice, He said, "Arise; go thy 
way ; thy faith hath made thee whole. ' ' 

I cannot tell you the joy that was in my heart. 
To think that He cared for my poor thanks ! And, 
when He said, "Thy faith hath made thee whole/' 
I felt that not only my body, but my soul, had been 
healed ; and I resolved that all my life I would try 
to live as He would wish me to ; for I felt that my 
life belonged to Him, and the best way to thank 



A STOEY OF THANKFULNESS 127 

Him was to try to live such a life as He lived. 
And so I learned my lesson, that Jesus likes to 
have us say, ' ' Thank you ! ' ' to one another and to 
God, ''who daily loadeth us with benefits/' 0, I 
hope you and I will never forget to thank Him by 
our words and by our lives. 



A STORY ABOUT TWO WAYS OP PRAYING 

(As it migJit have been told by a bystander) 

Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem. I was one 
of the crowd that followed Him from place to 
place, listening to His words, and seeing the mir- 
acles He performed. I did not yet believe in Him, 
but I was curious to hear what this great preacher 
had to say ; and so I followed with the rest, though 
I was sometimes ashamed of the company in which 
I found myself ; for I was a Pharisee, and consid- 
ered myself much better than most of the people 
in the crowd. There were many tax-gatherers 
among them, and we all despised such people as 
that, because they were always cheating other peo- 
ple and looking out for themselves first. I knew, 
too, that some of the people in the crowd were 
thoroughly bad ; and I was always astonished that 
the Master allowed such men to follow Him. 

He had been talking about praying, and I knew 
that I was all right there, for I prayed very often, 
and I fasted and gave tithes; and I felt myself to 
be so much better than most of the people around 
me that I wanted to hear what He would say to 
them. But, while I was feeling so well contented 

128 



TWO WAYS OF PEAYING 129 

with myself, the Master began to tell another story, 
for much of His teaching began with story-telling. 
''There were two men/' He said, ''who went up 
into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and one a 
publican." I knew at once that He would praise 
the Pharisee for his prayer ; for the Pharisees pray 
often, and pride themselves upon their righteous- 
ness. I felt almost sorry for the many publicans 
in that crowd ; for I knew that many of them were 
wicked men, and of course God would not accept 
their prayers. 

But to my great surprise He began to repeat 
the words of the prayers that these two men of- 
fered. I can seem to see even now the sorrowful 
look on His face as He repeated the Pharisee's 
prayer, ' ' God, I thank Thee that I am not as other 
men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as 
this publican. I fast twice in the week; I give 
tithes of all that I get.'' I had never prayed in 
just those words, but I was ashamed to remember 
that my prayers had often been very much like 
that. I had not exactly thanked God that I was 
better than other folks, but I had often had that 
feeling as I prayed; and I wondered whether the 
Master had sometimes watched me when I was 
praying in the temple. 0, how ashamed I felt as 
the Master repeated the Pharisee's words! I 



130 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

counted five times that the Pharisee said ^'I" in 
that prayer, and his whole thought seemed to be 
about himself and how good he was. Why, it was 
not really a prayer at all ; he was just boasting to 
God about himself and his own goodness, and I 
knew that my prayers had often been much like 
that in spirit if not in words. 

Then the Master told us of the publican, who, 
with bowed head, said humbly, ''God, be Thou 
merciful to me, a sinner/' That was all he said, 
just those few words and nothing more; but that 
was a real prayer. I knew the lesson the Master 
wanted us to learn, even before He spoke His last 
words, ''This man went down to his house justi- 
fied rather than the other; for every one that ex- 
alteth himself shall be humbled; but he that 
humbleth himself shall be exalted/' 

And so I learned my lesson, taught by the Mas- 
ter Himself, that the prayers God loves must be 
earnest and sincere, and spoken with a humble 
spirit. I learned then to see myself as God saw 
me, and I learned how to pray. 

Afterward I heard Him speak many other 
words about prayer ; and, as I listened, I felt that, 
if we would pray aright, we need only remember 
the Master's words, and pray such prayers as the 
one He Himself taught His disciples. 



JESUS AND THE CHILDREN 

(As a mother might have told the story) 

I HAD heard many things about Jesus, and I 
longed to see and hear Him myself. One day I was 
told that He had come into our neighborhood, and 
was teaching and preaching and healing the sick. 

I was very glad of that, and I said to a neigh- 
bor, ''The Master has come over Jordan, and the 
people are crowding around Him. He is teach- 
ing and healing the people, sometimes healing them 
just with a touch of His fingers, they say. And 
now I shall carry the children, little Rachel, and 
Samuel and John, and I think I shall even take 
Baby Esther to Him. If He will only lay His 
hands on them and bless them, I am sure they will 
be better children always; for His blessing will 
follow wherever they go." 

But their father heard me, and he said: **What 
a foolish idea! Why, don't you know how busy 
the Master is? Do you suppose He would stop to 
notice the children ? Why, you ought not to think 
of such a thing." 

131 



132 BFBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

But I said, ' ' 0, please don't hinder me ; I do so 
want to go! More than I want anything else in 
the world I want the Master 's blessing for my chil- 
dren/' 

Then their father said, ''AH right, you can try 
it ; but I don 't believe you can ever get near Him. ' ' 

My neighbors, too, thought I was foolish. One 
mother said, ''Why, / would not do it for any- 
thing. I should be afraid the children might get 
hurt in the crowd/' Another said, "I would go 
with you if I thought it would be any use, but I 
don't suppose He would want to be bothered with 
children." 

And so they advised against it till even the chil- 
dren began to be afraid. Little Rachel cried, and 
Samuel said, ^'I don't want to go." But I was 
determined to try. "I don't see how it can do any 
harm," I said. "They won't do anything worse 
than to send us away, and even then we should be 
as well off as we are now. I do so want the Mas- 
ter 's blessing for my children ! ' ' Then one of the 
mothers said, "Well, if you are really going, I 
think I will take my children and go with you"; 
and at last there were three or four of us who 
started out with our children. 

We all felt rather anxious, but I had heard so 
much about the Master and His loving-kindness 



JESUS AND THE CHILDEEN 133 

that I felt sure He would not send us away if we 
could only get near enough for Him to see us. I 
was more afraid that the people would crowd us 
out. 

At last we came near to the place where He was 
teaching, and my heart began to beat very fast. 
''You go first," the other mothers said; ''and we 
will follow you." So I took RachePs hand, and 
with the baby in my arms, and Samuel and John 
clinging to my skirts, I tried to push my way 
through the crowd. We succeeded in getting near 
enough to see the Master; and I listened very 
eagerly to His words, waiting for my opportunity ; 
for I did not want to interrupt. Baby was afraid 
of the crowd, and began to cry; and I could not 
hush her. Then one of the disciples — I think his 
name was Peter — said to me: "What are you do- 
ing here? Don't you see that the Master is teach- 
ing and healing the older people? He mustn't be 
troubled with the children. Take them away ; they 
will disturb Him." 

I knew he was right, for of course the older peo- 
ple were more important ; and I turned sorrowfully 
away. But the Master must have heard Baby Es- 
ther's cry, for He stopped talking, and looked at 
us as though He could see right into our hearts. 
Then He said to Peter: "Let the little children 



184 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

come to me. You must never forbid them to come, 
for of such is the kingdom of heaven. ' ' 

Then He took the baby in His arms; and she 
patted His cheeks with her little hands, and was 
not a bit afraid. He drew Eachel to His side, and 
laid His hands on the boys' heads, and blessed 
them. Then He called the other mothers to Him, 
and He blessed us all and our children. We went 
away very happy, and I am sure the children will 
never forget Him. His blessing will always follow 
them, and I cannot think they will ever wilfully 
do anything that would grieve Him. 

His words are meant just as much for children 
of to-day; and, if any one now should try to keep 
the children away from Him, I think that again 
they would hear His voice in their hearts saying, 

''Suffer the little children to come unto me. 
Forbid them not ; 
Of such is the kingdom of heaven.'' 



TREASUEES ON EAETH OR TREASURES 
IN HEAVEN 

{As the story migJit be told) 

If yon and I had been in the Holy Land once 
upon a time, we might have seen Jesus and His 
disciples walking towards Jerusalem. Perhaps 
John would have been walking next to Jesus, and 
Peter and Andrew would not have been far from 
Him. Perhaps Peter would have been asking ques- 
tions about the time when all the people would 
acknowledge Jesus as king. I am sure we should 
have joined that company, and we should have 
been glad to listen to every word that Jesus spoke. 

Presently, as we walked and talked, we might 
have heard behind us the sound of running foot- 
steps; and, as we turned to look, we should have 
seen a fine-looking young man, richly dressed, 
hurrying to catch us. 

I think it would have surprised us if we could 
have seen him run to Jesus, and kneel down before 
Him, asking earnestly, ^ ' Good Master, what shall 
I do that I may inherit eternal life?" There had 
been crowds of people coming to Jesus, and many 

135 



136 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

of them would have kneeled before Him, asking 
His help; but they would have been mostly poor 
people. This young man was very rich, as we 
could plainly see; and not many rich people had 
come to Jesus. 

How we should have looked and listened, as the 
young man asked this question, and how eagerly 
we should have waited for the Master's answer ! I 
think we should have been quite surprised when 
Jesus answered him with another question, ''Why 
do you call me good? There is only One who is 
good; that is God." 

The young man did not seem to know how to 
answer this; so he said nothing, and Jesus went 
on, ''You know the commandments." And then 
He repeated four or five of the Ten Command- 
ments, which we know as well as that young man 
who lived so long ago knew them. Perhaps we 
should have begun to ask ourselves how many of 
them we were keeping. I wonder whether we 
could honestly have answered as this young man 
did, "Master, I have faithfully tried all my life 
to keep these commandments." Then I think we 
should have seen a very loving look on the Mas- 
ter's face, and perhaps John would have whis- 
pered, "See how He loves this young man." 

But Jesus could look right into the young man's 



TEEASUEES ON EAETH 137 

heart, just as He looks into ours ; and He saw that 
he cared too much about money and the things 
money could buy. Lovingly and sorrowfully He 
said: ''There is one thing more you must do. Go 
and sell what you have, and give to the poor ; and 
come, follow me; and instead of all your riches 
here you shall have treasure in heaven. ' ' 

That was a very hard saying, for this young man 
was very rich, as Jesus knew; and to sell all his 
property and give his money to the poor, seemed 
too hard, even with the promise of treasure in 
heaven. He wanted the treasure in heaven which 
Jesus was promising him, but he seemed to think 
the price was too high. What ! give all his money 
to the poor, and become a poor man himself? It 
was too much. He felt that he could not do it, and 
we should have seen him go away with a sorrowful 
face, I think he was very unhappy with all his 
money, for he could not realize how much happier 
the treasures in heaven would have made him. 
Then, as we watched him slowly walking away, we 
should have heard Jesus say to His disciples, 
''How hard is it for them that trust in riches to 
enter into the kingdom of God ! ' ' 

I am sure that, if we had been there, and had 
seen and heard all this, we should have learned the 
lesson Jesus wanted to teach, that there is no treas- 



138 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

ure on earth worth anything as compared with 
treasure in heaven; and we .should have tried al- 
ways to remember the words that He spoke at 
another time : 

^'Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the 
earth, where moth and rust consume, and where 
thieves break through and steal; but lay up for 
yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth 
nor rust doth consume, and where thieves do not 
break through nor steal ; for where thy treasure is, 
there will thy heart be also. ' ' 



FOUR MEN WHO BROUGHT THEIR FRIEND 
TO JESUS 

{As one of the four might have told it) 

A FRIEND of ours was lying on his bed, helpless 
and forlorn; and we had often wished that we 
knew how to help him, as he would have helped us 
in any trouble if he could ; but the poor man could 
not move from his bed, and there seemed to be 
nothing we could do for him. 

One day, however, we learned to our great joy 
that Jesus had come to our city, and was staying in 
a house not far away; so four of us got together, 
and offered to carry our friend to Jesus that he 
might be healed. He did not have so much faith 
as we had, for he was helpless and discouraged; 
but he was thankful for our kindness and glad to 
be carried to Jesus. 

We took him just as he was, on his bed, and car- 
ried him to the house where Jesus was; but we 
were very disappointed when we found so great 
a crowd already there that we could not even get 
near the door ourselves, to say nothing of carrying 
in the sick man on his bed. 

139 



140 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIBS 

Our friend was not only disappointed but dis- 
couraged, and he said, ''There, I told you it was 
no use ; we can never get near enough even to hear 
His words ; He can 't even see me ; but I do almost 
believe He could heal me if I could only get near 
Him." Then we said, ''Never fear; you shall get 
near Him; we'll manage it in some way." Then 
we four talked it over together, and planned what 
to do next. We took up his couch again, and very 
carefully we carried him up the outside steps to 
the top of the house; and, taking off some of the 
tiling from the roof, we made an opening big 
enough to let him through; and then with ropes 
we let him down, bed and all, right into the room, 
and set his bed down right before Jesus; for we 
believed that if Jesus saw him He would heal him. 

We had already learned to believe in the Christ ; 
and, as He looked right into our hearts and saw 
our faith, and saw, too, the weaker faith 
of the helpless man we had brought to Him, 
He said in a gentle voice, "Son, thy sins 
be forgiven thee." Our friend told us afterward 
that there came then a great peace into his heart, 
and he knew that it would be well with him 
whether he were healed or not, and that Jesus 
would do just what was best for him. 

There were some Pharisees in that crowd ; and I 



FOUE MEN 141 

saw them look at one another, as one of them 
whispered, ''This man blasphemeth; no one can 
forgive sins but God." But Jesus knew their 
thoughts, just as He knows ours to-day; and He 
said to them, ''Which do you think is easier, to 
say, 'Thy sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Arise, take 
up thy bed, and walk'? But that you may know 
that the Son of man really has power to forgive 
sins, ' ' turning to our friend, He said, ' ' Arise, and 
take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house." 

Immediately our friend stood up, and, picking 
up his couch as though it was a very little thing, 
walked away with it, thanking and praising God 
as he went; and the people who saw it "were all 
amazed, and glorified God, saying. We never saw 
it on this fashion. ' ' 

I think we were perhaps the happiest men in 
Galilee that day, for we had brought our friend 
to Jesus, and we had learned that He cared for 
us and for everybody who needs His help; and 
from that time we lived happily, "casting all our 
care upon Him," for we knew that He cared for 
us. 



JESUS IN A RICH MAN'S HOME 

If we had been in a city called Jericho, in the 
Holy Land, many hundreds of years ago, we might 
have seen a great crowd of people hurrying along 
the city streets as fast as they could go. I think 
we should have hurried after them to see what was 
going on. Probably we should have asked the first 
person who could stop to listen to us what had hap- 
pened and where all the people were going in such 
a hurry. Perhaps his answer would have been 
something like this : ' ' Why, haven't you heard that 
Jesus of Nazareth is coming to our town? I sup- 
pose He will stay all night, and I am wondering in 
whose home He will stay. I wish I could invite 
Him to our house, but I'm afraid we haven't room 
enough. ' ' 

I think that by this time we should all have been 
very much excited, and should have hurried down 
the street with the crowd. As we went, we might 
have seen a little man before us, such a very little 
man that perhaps we should have smiled as we 
watched him hurrying along; and we might have 

142 



JESUS IN A EICH MAN'S HOME 143 

said, * ' I 'm afraid the little man won 't get a chance 
to see much in this crowd. ' ' 

Then, as we watched, we should have seen him 
suddenly edge away from the crowd, and climb 
up into a tree that stood by the roadside ; and per- 
haps some boy in the crowd would have said, ''He 
is going to see all there is to be seen, after all. ' ' It 
may be that we should have heard some of the peo- 
ple jeering and laughing at him, as they said: 
''Just look at little old Zacchseus climbing up into 
that tree! What good does he expect to get from 
this visit of Jesus? I should think he would be 
ashamed to look at Him. The old cheat!" Per- 
haps we should have asked some one to tell us 
why they disliked the little man so, and the answer 
might have been, "0, he is a publican; he collects 
taxes from us all for the Romans. No one likes 
the publicans; they are all cheats and rogues, we 
say." 

By this time Jesus would have been very near, 
and there would be no time for talking, for I am 
sure we should all have felt very much as Zacchseus 
did, that we must see Jesus. How surprised we 
should have been, when the crowd came near to the 
sycamore-tree, and Jesus suddenly stopped and 
called out in a loud, clear voice, "Zacchaeus, make 
haste, and come down, for to-day I must abide at 



144 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

thy house''! 0, how surprised and pleased 
Zacchasus must have been ! I believe that he came 
down from that tree much more quickly than he 
went up, and I am sure he gave Jesus a joyful 
welcome. He would never have said, ''We haven't 
room enough." There would surely have been 
room for Jesus in his home, whoever else might be 
there. 

Perhaps just then we might have seen the man 
who had wished Jesus could come to his house, 
only he had no room for Him ; and we might have 
heard him say : ' ' Well, what a strange thing to do ! 
Why, he is gone in to lodge with a man that is a 
sinner! That is the last place I should have ex- 
pected Him to visit. I wonder whether He knows 
what sort of a man Zacchaeus is." How we should 
have listened to what Zacchaeus would say, and 
what Jesus would say ! 

Then we might have seen little Zacchgeus stand 
forth in the sight of all the people, and say in a 
loud voice, ''Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I 
now give to the poor ; and, if I have wronged any 
man, I will give him back four times as much. ' ' I 
think some of the people would have looked a little 
ashamed as they heard Jesus say something like 
this: "This day is salvation come to this house. 
The Son of man came to seek and to save that 



JESUS IN A EICH MAN'S HOME 145 

which is lost. If Zacch^us is such a sinner as you 
say, then he is the very man I came to save. ' ' 

I wonder whether we should have stood with the 
crowd, watching Him in silence as He walked home 
with Zacchasus, or should we have followed Jesus 
and asked whether we too might go to Zacch^us's 
home, and listen to His words? I wonder whether 
we are trying now to be like Zacchaeus, hurrying 
to see Jesus, welcoming Him to our hearts and 
homes, and trying so far as we can to undo all the 
wrong things we have done, and to do what will 
please Jesus. We can come to Jesus to-day just 
as truly as Zaccheeus did, and Jesus will be just 
as glad to visit us as He was to visit Zacchaeus if we 
can sing from our hearts the words, 

^'0, come to my heart. Lord Jesus, come; 
There is room in my heart for Thee. " 



THE STORY OF A MAN WHO BOASTED 

{As Peter might have told it) 

It was the very last night that our Lord was 
with us on earth that I so grieved His heart by 
boasting. We had eaten the passover supper ; and 
He had told us to observe this supper in remem- 
brance of Him, as He broke the bread and blessed 
it, and passed to us the cup, saying, ' ' Drink ye all 
of if ; and then He said, ''Verily I say unto you, 
I shall no more drink of the fruit of the vine until 
that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of 
God/' 

I remember how lovingly yet sorrowfully the 
Master looked into our faces as He said, ''A new 
commandment I ^ive unto you, that ye love one 
another as I have loved you/' 

I am sure we were all ashamed of ourselves then, 
for we had not been very loving when we had 
quarrelled as to who should be greatest in His 
kingdom. I remember it all so distinctly now, but 
just then I was not thinking what He was saying, 
for I was puzzling about something He had said 
a few moments ago about going somewhere where 

146 



THE STOEY OF A MAN WHO BOASTED 147 

we could not follow Him. Now I felt so sure that 
I would go wherever He could that I said, ''Lord, 
whither goest ThouT' 

He looked at me kindly, and said, ''Whither I 
go thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt 
follow me afterward. ' ' 

But I answered: "Lord, why cannot I follow 
Thee now? I am ready to go with Thee both into 
prison and to death." 

And then the Master answered sadly, **I tell 
thee, Peter, that this day, even in this night, before 
the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. ' ' 

But I was so proud and so sure of myself that 
again I boasted, "Though I should die with Thee, 
yet will I not deny Thee," I said. 

I think it was because I felt so sure of myself, 
and because I boasted, that I failed Him so 
quickly ; for ever since that day I have known that 
the man who boasts forgets God, and is very likely 
to sin just because he does not watch against temp- 
tation. 

It all happened just as He had said, that very 
same evening; for when, a little later, in the Gar- 
den of Gethsemane, the Roman guard came to ar- 
rest Him, we all forsook Him and fled ; and I, who 
had boasted so great things, was the very worst of 
all : for I did say three times that very night that 



148 BIBLE AUTOBIOGRAPHIES 

I did not know Him and had never been one of 
His disciples, and all because I was afraid to fol- 
low Him to death as I had boasted that I would. 
It was only when I heard the cock crowing in the 
early morning, and saw Him turn and look at me, 
that I remembered His words ; and, though I went 
out and wept bitterly, and though I did truly re- 
pent of my sin, yet I could not undo it. I had 
boasted that I would be true though every one else 
should fail Him, and then I had denied that I knew 
Him! 

I am glad to remember that He did forgive me 
afterward, and I tried always to be faithful to 
Him from that time. Later I did follow in His 
steps even to prison, for the Jews imprisoned me 
for teaching in His name ; and it may be that some- 
time I shall have to follow Him even to death ; but, 
if that must be, I hope I shall be found faithful, 
for I have learned my lesson ; and now I often say 
to myself, ''Let him that thinketh he standeth take 
heed lest he fall''; and I do not boast any more of 
what I will do. 



THE STORY OF A MAN WHO WAS AFRAID 
TO DO RIGHT 

{As Pilate himself might tell it if he could 
come hack) 

I WAS the Roman governor in Jerusalem, 
Caesar's representative; the supreme power of the 
province was in my hands. I was glad to be in 
command; and yet it was not altogether a desir- 
able position, for the Jews were not easy to govern. 
They hated the Romans, and they hated me; and, 
indeed, I hated them too, because they had so often 
rebelled against my authority, and threatened to 
complain of me to Caesar, and, if possible, have me 
removed from my high position as governor. 

Yet among all the difficulties and troubles that 
I had had there was nothing that so perplexed and 
troubled me as the case of Jesus of Nazareth, the 
^ ^ King of the Jews, ' ' as many called Him, though 
I had never heard of His calling Himself by that 
title. I had watched Him and spied upon Him, but 
I had never heard anything evil concerning Him; 
and when, very early one morning, the rulers of 

149 



150 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

the Jews led Him to my judgment-seat, demanding 
that He be put to death, I did not know what to 
do. I ought to have known, for I believed 
Him to be innocent, and I was sure that they could 
not prove their charges against Him; but I was 
afraid to do right. 

I asked them what accusation they had brought 
against Him, and they said: ''If He were not a 
wicked man who deserved to die, we would not 
have brought Him before thee. We found this 
fellow perverting the people, and forbidding them 
to give tribute to Caesar, saying that He Himself 
is Christ, a king, and the Son of God. ' ' 

When I heard that, I was afraid ; for it seemed 
to me, from all I had seen and heard of Him, that 
He might really be the Son of God. I did not for 
a moment believe that their accusation was true, 
but I took the prisoner one side, and questioned 
Him alone; and then I was even more afraid, for 
I found no fault in Him, and I did not know what 
to do. While I was thinking about it with a 
troubled heart, this message was brought to me 
from one in my home: ''Have nothing to do with 
that righteous man, for I have suffered many 
things this day in a dream because of Him.'' I 
knew that this advice was good, and I wished that 
I need have nothing to do with "that righteous 



A MAN AFEAID TO DO EIGHT 151 

man"; but how should I get rid of the ease? I 
was afraid of Him, and I was afraid of the people. 

I sent Him to Herod, hoping that he would dis- 
pose of the business ; but Herod found no fault in 
Him, and sent Him^ back to me. I tried in every 
way I could think of to persuade the people to let 
me release Him; but they said, ^^If thou let this 
man go, thou art not Caesar's friend; for whoso- 
ever maketh himself a king speaketh against 
Caesar." Then I offered to admit that He was 
guilty, but I would set Him free, as it was my cus- 
tom always to release one prisoner at passover- 
time, and this time it should be Jesus Christ. 
When they still protested, I gave them their 
choice; I would release Jesus or Barabbas, a man 
who was a notable robber and murderer, and of 
v/hom every one was afraid ; but they all cried out 
with one voice that I should release Barabbas, and 
that Jesus should be crucified. 

I knew it was a wrong and wicked thing to do, 
but I yielded to them because I was afraid to do 
the right thing. If they should accuse me to 
Caesar, as they threatened, I should lose my posi- 
tion ; and so for fear of the Jews I yielded and did 
what I knew was wicked ; I washed my hands be- 
fore them all, and told them I would wash away 
this guilt from my hands, and the sin was theirs; 



162 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

and then I delivered Jesus to them to be crucified, 
saying that it was their fault and not mine. But 
all the time I knew that it really was my fault, and 
that I could not wash my hands of it; I knew in 
my inmost soul that I was really the one who 
crucified Jesus. 

I know now, and I think I really knew even then, 
that nothing they could do to me, even if they did 
their worst, would be so hard to bear, as the ac- 
cusations of my own conscience would be if I 
should do that wicked thing; but because I was 
afraid I did it. Oh, how I suffered for it all the 
rest of my life ! and how often I wished that I had 
been able to say, as did one of their own writers, 
''In God have I put my trust; I will not be afraid 
what man can do unto me.'* 



TWO MEN WHO TOOK A WALK WITH 
JESUS 

{A Word Picture) 

Once upon a time, away back in the long ago, in 
a country far, far away, I seem to see two men 
walking and talking together one afternoon near 
the setting of the sun. They were not happy men, 
one could see; for their faces were sad and their 
voices were sorrowful. We do not know exactly 
what they were saying, but we can imagine that it 
was something like this : 

''When did you first see Him?" Cleopas would 
say. 

^^0, a long time ago," the other might answer; 
''it was that day on the mountain when He talked 
about the laws of the kingdom, and taught us how 
to pray, and told the story of the two men who 
built their houses, one on the sand, and one on the 
rock.'' 

' ' 0, yes, I heard that, ' ' Cleopas would say, ' ' and 
don't you remember how He said that, if we heard 
those sayings of His, and did those things which 

153 



154 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

He taught, our houses were founded upon the 
rock? His teachings were good, and His deeds 
were good; but I am afraid we were mistaken in 
Him, after all. I thought He was 'the Coming 
One'; but they have killed Him, and that is the 
end of our hopes.'' 

' ' I am afraid so, ' ' the other would answer ; ' ' and 
yet, when I remember all the wonderful things 
that He said and did, it seems as though He must 
have been what He claimed. Were you there when 
He raised Lazarus from the dead?" 

''Yes, I was there; and I have seen Him do 
many other wonderful works, and He spake as 
never man spake. 0, how could they do it? Why 
did He let them kill Him? He saved others; 
surely He could have saved Himself." 

"But what do you think of that story those 
women told us this morning about seeing some 
angels who told them that He was alive?" the 
other might ask. 

"0, they must have been mistaken," Cleopas 
would answer. "You know Peter went himself to 
the sepulchre; it is true that he found it empty 
as the women said, but he did not see Jesus. ' ' 

"Well, it is all very hard to understand," the 
other would answer; "I did so hope it was all 
true." 



TWO WHO TOOK A WALK WITH JESUS 156 

We can almost see these two men walldng so 
sadly along the road on their way to their home 
in Emmaus, on the third day after Jesixs was cruci- 
fied ; and we can seem to hear their very words as 
they talk of all the things that have happened in 
Jerusalem in these last three days. But now, as 
we look at them and listen to their words, One is 
coming to join them in their walk; and our own 
hearts seem to burn within us as we listen while He 
asks them what they are talking about and why 
they are so sad. What do you suppose we should say 
if some day Jesus should join us in our walk, and 
ask us what we were talking about ? 0, I hope He 
would not hear any of us saying anything unkind 
or untrue, or anything that would grieve Him ; but 
we must not forget that He is with us every day 
in all our walks and talks, though we do not see 
Him. 

Cleopas told Him of their talk, and we can see 
His wonderful look of loving-kindness as He tells 
them how foolish and slow of heart they have been 
that they have not understood their Bible; for 
then they would have known that all this must 
happen, and they would have believed the story 
the women had told that very morning of their 
vision of angels. How their hearts burned within 
them as they listened, while He opened to them the 



156 BIBLE ATJTOBIOGEAPHIES 

Scriptures and explained what the prophets had 
written ! How firmly they believed it all now, and 
how foolish they felt themselves to have been not 
to have so studied their Bible that they would have 
understood it all beforehand ! 

But now, if you look into the sky, you will see 
that it is almost sunset, and they are drawing near 
to their home; and, though they do not seem to 
know who this stranger is, yet they do not want 
to lose His company. Can't you hear them asking 
Him to come in and stay with them? I wonder 
how often we have asked Him to come in and stay 
in our homes; I am sure that He is just as ready 
to come now as then. 

And now I wonder whether your imagination is 
so strong that you can see the three at their even- 
ing meal, and can hear the Stranger as He asks the 
blessing. Do you think of Him sometimes when 
the blessing is asked at your table ? And now, see 
what a wonderful thing is happening! As He 
speaks, all at once they know it is Jesus; and in 
that moment He vanishes from their sight. 

Now what do you think they will do next ? Will 
they sit down and talk it all over as they eat their 
evening meal? Not they! I don't believe that 
meal was ever eaten ; for I seem to see them now, 
hurrying back to Jerusalem, talking eagerly as 



TWO WHO TOOK A WALK WITH JESUS 157 

they go, trying to remember every single word that 
Jesus spoke to them. 

And here they are, back in Jerusalem again, in 
that upper chamber where the eleven are gathered, 
all eagerly talking. Can you hear what John is 
saying as they enter the room ? ' ' The Lord is risen 
indeed, and hath appeared to Simon !^' he says. 
Aren't you glad that He appeared to Peter so 
soon? It must have been then, I think, that Peter 
knew that he was forgiven. And now the two are 
talking, and they will not stop until they have 
' ' told what things were done in the way, ' ' and how 
the Lord was known of them in breaking of bread 
and blessing it. Aren't you glad they have told 
the rest all they knew about Jesus their Saviour, 
and don't you suppose that is what Jesus wants us 
to do, that we also may help others to believe in 
Him? 



WHAT HAPPENED TO A CRIPPLE 

{As the cripple Jiimself might have told the 
story) 

I HAD never known what it was to be well. 
From my very babyhood I had always been a 
cripple, and had had to be carried everywhere. 
As soon as I was old enough, I had to get my own 
living as best I could; and the only way I knew 
of getting it was to beg. Every morning I used to 
get some one to carry me from my home, and lay 
me down beside that gate of the temple which we 
called Beautiful. 

I felt that the people who went through that 
gate and into the temple to worship God would be 
the ones who would be most likely to help me, be- 
cause they would be the people who would remem- 
ber the words that God had spoken through His 
servant Moses, ^ ' If there be among you a poor man 
of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in 
thy land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou 
shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand 
from thy poor brother; but thou shalt open thine 
hand wide unto him.'' 

Then, too, I had heard of Jesus, though I had 
158 



WHAT HAPPENED TO A CEIPPLE 169 

never seen Him; and some one had told me that 
He had once said to His disciples, ' ' Freely ye have 
received; freely give''; so I felt sure that here at 
the Beautiful Gate I should find those who would 
help me. 

I was now forty years old, and all those forty 
years I had been a cripple. Every day I had been 
carried to the temple, and many had hardened 
their hearts and passed me by without even look- 
ing; but some had helped. 

One day, as I was lying there, I saw two men 
coming up to the temple who looked different from 
the rest; they had so pleasant, kind faces! One 
was a young man, and the other much older; but 
they seemed to be great friends, and they looked 
as though they would be friendly with everybody. 

I asked them for money, and I felt sure they 
would give me something. They stopped instantly, 
and the older man, looking at me very earnestly, 
said, ''Look on us.'' I looked eagerly, believing 
that they would surely give me money; but the 
older man, whose name I afterward learned was 
Peter, said, ''I haven't any silver or gold, but such 
as I have I will give ' ' ; and then, with a very ear- 
nest and solemn voice he said, ''In the name of 
Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!" 

Immediately I felt that I could do it, though I 



160 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEArHIES 

had never walked a step in my life. He took me 
by the hand, and God gave me strength to stand 
up and walk. 0, 1 don 't believe you can half know 
how thankful I was! I jumped; I ran; I stood 
still ; I walked ; and all the time I was praising and 
thanking God with a loud voice for all His good- 
ness to me ; and all the people heard me. 

Of course I walked into the temple first of all; 
for I wanted to thank God in His house, and I 
wanted everybody to know that I was thanking 
Him. It seemed as though I could never thank 
Him enough, and in all my after-life I tried to 
show my thankfulness by telling others how I had 
been healed through the power of Jesus Christ. 
Often, as I went to the temple, I used to sing the 
words of one of our Psalms, 

" Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, 
And into His courts with praise; 
Be thankful unto Him, 
And bless His name." 

It did me good to say ''Thank you'* to God, and 
I believe it was also good for those who heard me, 
and I know the Psalmist was right when he said, 

" It is a good thing to give thanks 
Unto the Lord, 
And to sing praises unto Thy name, 
O Most High." 



A WOMAN WHO PRETENDED TO BE GOOD 

{As Sapphira might tell it now if she could 
come back) 

I WAS a wicked woman, and I knew it, and I was 
as much to blame as Ananias. We were counted 
among the followers of Jesus, and in a general way 
we meant to do what was right; but sometimes it 
seemed to us that the apostles asked too much of 
us. And when it came to pass that all the Chris- 
tians began to sell their possessions, and give their 
money into the general fund for the good of all, 
we did not want to do as they were doing. 

We thought we should feel rather ashamed not 
to do what the others did, and we did not want 
them to think us mean and selfish; yet we could 
not quite make up our minds to give away so much 
money. We talked it over together many times, 
and at last we made a plan. We would sell our 
land, and hand over a part of the money to the 
apostles for the general fund; and the rest we 
would keep for ourselves. We knew that the 
others were giving all ; but we would not tell them 
how much we sold the land for, and they would 

161 



162 BIBLE AUTOBIOGKAPHIES 

think that of course we had given it all. We need 
not say anything about the price we had received, 
but just go forward with the others and hand over 
the money ; and they would take it for granted that 
we had given all, and would think we were gener- 
ous. 

Of course we were not obliged to sell the land, 
or to give away any of the money ; but we wanted 
to be thought as kind and generous as other people. 
I am afraid we cared more for what men thought 
of us than for what God thought. 

Well, we did just as we had planned. We sold 
our land, and Ananias carried part of the money 
to Peter. I waited anxiously at home for Ananias 
to come back; for I wanted to know what Peter 
would say, and whether others would praise us for 
our generosity. I waited and waited and waited 
a long time; but Ananias did not come back, and 
I could not think what had become of him. 

At last I could not bear it any longer, and I de- 
cided that I too would go to Peter and find out 
what he had said, and why Ananias had not come 
back. I did not find Ananias; and, when I spoke 
to Peter about the money, he asked me at once, 
**Did you sell the land for just so much?'' And 
I could not stop to think; so I said, *^Yes, for so 
much." Until now my sin had been selfishness 



A WOMAN PEETENDED TO BE GOOD 163 

and trying to seem better than I was; but now I 
had added another sin to cover up the first ones, 
for I had told a lie. 

Then Peter told me, as he had already told 
Ananias, that we had not lied unto men, but unto 
God, and that I must die for my sins as Ananias 
had already died; and, as he spoke the words, T 
fell at his feet dead. 

0, if I could go back now to the people who live 
on the earth, I would say to them, ' ' Do not try to 
seem good in the sight of men, but rather ^ study 
to show yourselves approved unto God.' When 
you come to die, you will not care so much what 
men think of you, but you will care very much 
what God thinks of you. Be honest and true, and 
try always to do what is right in God's sight. If 
you have not always done this, ask God to forgive 
you, and begin all over again now, and try always 
to be what you seem, and to do right in God's sight. 
I wish I had always remembered what God once 
said to Samuel : 

* ^ ' The Lord seeth not as man seeth ; 

Man looketh on the outward appearance. 
The Lord looketh on the heart.' " 



DORCAS, THE FRIEND OF THE POOR 

{As one of her neigJibors might have told the 
story afterward) 

I WAS a woman who lived long ago in Joppa. 
My nearest neighbor was a woman named Dorcas, 
and she lived so beautiful, kindly a life that she 
helped all her neighbors to be more kind and 
thoughtful for others, though she never said much 
to us about being good, or caring for the poor, or 
trying to please God. 

I often wondered how she could be so forgetful 
of herself and so thoughtful for others ; for she was 
always doing kind things for some one. I often 
thought as I watched her daily life of the words 
that our Master once spoke, ' ' Inasmuch as ye have 
done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, 
ye have done it unto me." I am sure that, if she 
had ever seen the Master in need of food or cloth- 
ing, she would have ministered to Him; and it 
must have been a joy to her to think that in caring 
for His children she was ministering to Him. 

If any of the neighbors were sick, they always 
sent for her ; if any one was suffering, she seemed 
to know of it without being told; and she always 
carried help and comfort wherever there was 

164 



DOECAS, THE FEIEND OF THE POOE 166 

trouble. If her neighbors were joyful and happy, 
she rejoiced with them; and, if they were unhappy, 
she comforted them. We used to say of her that 
she was ''full of good works." She often made 
me think of what the wise man once wrote, ''She 
openeth her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue 
is the law of kindness. '' 

In her spare time she was always sewing for the 
poor, and many were the little coats and dresses 
that she made for those who were in need. I often 
used to meet poor people, sometimes widows and 
sometimes little children, wearing clothes that I 
knew she had made for them. 

One day I went to see her, expecting to find her 
sewing as usual; but I was sorry to find that she 
was very sick. She did not complain, but only said 
that she was sorry she had not been able to finish 
the little coat that she was making for a neighbor's 
little boy who needed it very much. 

She died a few days later, and there was great 
sorrow in Joppa when people heard of her death. 
There were a good many Christians in that city, 
and one of them suggested that we should send for 
Peter, who was staying at Lydda, a town not far 
away. So we sent two men with an urgent mes- 
sage, asking him to come to us at once; and he 
came hurrying back with them. 



166 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPUIES 

We told him all about Dorcas, and our great sor- 
row, and what a loss it was to all the poor people 
of the neighborhood. We did not suppose that he 
could do anything, but it was a comfort to tell him 
all about it. 

We took him to the home of Dorcas ; and, when 
we went up-stairs, we found in her room a great 
company of women, among them many widows 
that she had helped ; and they were all crying, and 
showing the coats and garments that she had made 
while she was with us. One woman said, ^^Look! 
she made this dress that I have on." Another 
said, **See my little boy; she made the coat he is 
wearing." There was hardly any one in the room 
who had not received some kindness from her, and 
we did not wonder that they were crying. 

But Peter asked them all to go out of the room, 
and then he kneeled down and prayed. He must 
have had great faith ; for, as he prayed he felt that 
his prayer was answered, and, turning to the bed, 
he said, ^^Tabitha," for that was her other name, 
'^Tabitha, arise!" And immediately she opened 
her eyes; and, when she saw Peter, she sat up. 
** And he gave her his hand, and lifted her up ; and, 
when he had called the saints and widows, pre- 
sented her alive. And it was known throughout all 
Joppa, and many believed in the Lord." 



HOW PAUL CONFESSED CHRIST ON THE 
DAMASCUS ROAD 

{As Paul Tiimself might have told the story) 

There was a time when I distinctly chose not to 
confess Christ, and not only that, but I determined 
that, so far as I could prevent it, no one else should 
confess Him; and so I persecuted His followers 
everywhere. 

But there came a time when Christ revealed 
Himself to me in a wonderful manner. I was on 
my way to Damascus to persecute the Christians 
there, when suddenly there shone from heaven a 
great light round about me. I fell to the ground, 
and I heard Christ's voice, as He told me that in 
persecuting His followers I was persecuting Him. 
At that very instant I faced right about, and chose 
to become His follower instead of His persecutor; 
and I said, ^^What wilt Thou have me to do, 
Lord?" I felt at once that I wanted to do His 
will and not my own. He told me to arise and go 
into the city, and there I should be told what I 
was to do. 

167 



168 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

When I arose, I could not see anything, for the 
light had blinded me; but the soldiers who were 
with me led me by the hand, and took me to the 
home of Judas ; and there I stayed for three days, 
not able to see anything or to eat anything. All 
the time I was just thinking, thinking, thinking; 
and, when I was not thinking I was praying, pray- 
ing, praying, for I knew there must be a great 
change in my life after this, and I longed for guid- 
ance and wisdom to know how I might best serve 
the Lord Christ, whom at last I knew and loved. 

After a few days, Ananias, one of the Christians 
who lived in Damascus, came to me, and stood by 
me, and said, ^^ Brother Saul, receive thy sight. 
God has chosen thee to be His witness unto all 
men." I was greatly surprised that one of the 
very men I had meant to persecute should be will- 
ing to call me ''brother"; and it was Ananias, now 
my friend, who gave me my first lesson in the 
Christian life. 

As soon as I could I went away into Arabia, 
that I might be alone to think and pray and plan. 
After my stay in the desert of Arabia I went right 
back to Damascus, that I might confess Christ as 
my Master there in the very city where I had 
meant to deny Him and to persecute His follow- 
ers. Publicly in their synagogues I confessed 



HOW PAUL CONFESSED OHEIST 169 

Christ, saying to every one, ''He is the Son of 
God/' I knew that this public confession of 
Christ would bring me into danger, but I was so 
glad to be counted as His follower that I wanted 
every one to know it, and I wanted to bring as 
many others as I could into the joy of that disciple- 
ship. 

It was not long before the Jews, who would not 
accept Christ as their Lord, and would not let 
others confess Him, began to plot how they might 
kill me, even as I had planned to kill others ; but 
some of the Christians, who called themselves my 
brethren now, helped me to escape, letting me 
down from a window in the wall, in a basket on a 
dark night ; and so I was safe for that time. 

After that it was always a joy to me to confess 
Christ whenever and wherever I had opportunity, 
though often it cost me much suffering, and often 
it led me into great danger; but always I could 
rejoice in my Master's words, ''Whosoever shall 
confess me before men, him will I confess also be- 
fore my Father which is in heaven. ' ' 

I suppose no one was ever led to make his first 
confession of Christ in so wonderful a way as I 
was, for all people are led to Him in different 
ways ; but all may come to Him, and all may know 
the joy of confession, and may know that Christ 



170 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

mil always own as His children those who own 
Him as their Lord and Master. We should always 
be very, very glad to make it known that we be- 
long to Him. 



A STORY OF ^^A HELPER OF MANY'' 

{As Phoebe might have told it) 

My home was in Cenchre^, one of the ports of the 
great city of Corinth ; and ever since I had learned 
from Paul what it meant to be a follower of Jesus 
I had tried to do what I could to help others to 
know God's law and obey it. I was a member of 
the church that was in Cenchreas, and I had tried, 
so far as I could, to help in all the work of that 
church. But the time came when I must leave 
my home and take the long journey to Rome. 
When Paul heard that I was going there, he said 
that he would like to send a letter by me to the 
Christians in Rome ; and Tertius, who had the pen 
of a ready writer, promised to write it at Paul's 
dictation. 

Paul had never been in Rome, but he had long 
been planning to go there when there should be an 
opportunity. Alas! that opportunity never came 
to him till he went there as a prisoner, falsely ac- 
cused by the very people he was trying to help. 

There were a good many Christians in Rome, a 
few of them friends of Paul's; and others, I sup- 

171 



172 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

pose, had heard the story of Jesus and His love 
from some of the apostles, when they had some- 
times been to Jerusalem to attend a feast. I knew 
they would be very glad to get Paul's letter; and 
I felt very much honored to think that he would 
trust me to carry it, and that he even mentioned 
my name in it, and recommended me to his friends 
in Eome. 

It was a long, hard journey, and sometimes a 
dangerous one. I felt very anxious lest I should 
fail to get safely to Rome with the precious letter ; 
but Paul dictated it, and Tertius wrote it for him. 
Then he copied it off carefully, and first of all read 
it aloud to the church in Corinth; and then he 
wrapped it up in many wrappings and gave it to 
me, and I started on my journey. 

I was very glad when at last the long voyage 
was over, and I arrived safely in Rome, and 
handed the letter to the elders of the church ; and 
very eagerly I listened again to Paul's words, as 
it was read aloud to the Christians who had gath- 
ered to hear it. 

He told them in this letter that their faith was 
known throughout the Roman Empire, and that 
he very much desired to preach the gospel to the 
Christians in Rome. He told them of the power of 
the gospel of Christ, and how from the beginning 



A STOEY OF ^^ A HELPEE OP MANY '' 173 

of the world God had revealed Himself to the 
hearts of men ; but they had made idols, and had 
worshipped them, as many Eomans did still. He 
reminded them that the old way of trying to be 
righteous by keeping the Jewish law had passed 
away, and that the new way of righteousness by 
faith in Jesus had come. Then, after writing more 
advice, especially for the Jews, he added some 
counsels for all Christians of whatever race or 
language. 

He gave them many simple rules for Christian 
living, such as you have read in your Bible in 
Eomans 12 : 9-21, and then he closed with special 
personal greetings to all his friends in Eome. 

I felt very glad and very humble, as they read 
what he had said of me. ^'I commend unto you 
Phcebe, our sister," he wrote, ^'who is a servant of 
the church which is at Cenchrese; that ye receive 
her in the Lord, worthily of the saints, and that ye 
assist her in whatsoever matter she may have need 
of you ; for she herself also hath been a helper of 
many, and of mine own self." 

I do so like the title he gave me, **a helper of 
many"; and I have tried ever since then to de- 
serve it. That is what I want to be always, 
''Phoebe the helper," and I am sure God wants us 
all to be ''helpers of many." 



PAUL'S HELPERS AND HINDERERS 

(As Paul migJit have told the story) 

My life was a very busy one, with many troubles 
and trials and many joys; and most of my joys 
and trials I owed to my helpers and hinderers. 

I was a hinderer myself at first, for I persecuted 
the Christians unto death, ''binding and deliver- 
ing into prisons both men and women/' But my 
Lord met me on the Damascus road, and showed 
me how wrong I was ; and from that time I was a 
changed man, and instead of being a hinderer I 
began to be a helper. 

There were many people after that who tried to 
hinder me, but I found my first helper right there 
in Damascus. There was a man in that city named 
Ananias, who was almost afraid to come near me, 
because he knew how I had persecuted the Chris- 
tians ; yet he bravely came to my help, and brought 
me a message from my Lord ; and through his help 
my sight was given back to me, for I had been 
blind ever since my vision of the Christ on the 
Damascus road. I can never forget what Ananias 
did for me, though I was never able to see much of 
him afterward. 

174 



PAULAS HELPEES AND HINDEEEES 175 

There were other friends in Damascus, too; and 
they came to my rescue when my would-be hin- 
derers were seeking to kill me. These kind friends 
warned me of my danger, and led me to the house 
of a friendly Christian, whose house was on the 
city wall ; and they let me down in a basket in the 
night; and so I escaped from the city and from 
my enemies. 

When later I went to Jerusalem to try to undo, 
so far as I could, the evil I had done there, the 
disciples were all afraid of me. I could not blame 
them since I had once been such a hinderer; but 
I wished they would let me be a helper now. Then 
came my friend Barnabas, a kindly, gentle man, 
a gentleman in every sense of the word; and he 
went with me to the disciples, and told them that 
I had become a different man, and that I now 
preached the faith which once I tried to destroy, 
and they might trust me. 

It was not long before there were many in Jeru- 
salem who wished to hinder my work, and planned 
to kill me ; but again my friends and helpers came 
to my rescue, and went with me as far as Caesarea, 
and saw me safely on board a ship for Tarsus, my 
old home. I was sorry to go, for I wanted to work 
for Christ right there where I had worked against 
Him; but, if it had not been for my helpers, I 



176 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

should have lost my life, and should have had no 
opportunity to serve Him anywhere. 

I cannot tell you now of all my other friends 
and helpers, for there were many of them. There 
was Phoebe, who was *^a helper of many'' and of 
myself also. Whenever I .sailed from the port of 
Cenchreas, her home was always my stopping-place 
on the way. It was Phoebe, too, who carried my 
letter to the Christians in Rome, a letter which is 
still read by Christians in every land, though I 
wrote it nearly two thousand years ago. I wonder 
whether you have read it, and whether it has 
helped you, for I hoped my letters would be help- 
ful to all who should read them. 

Then there was Lydia, who opened her home to 
me in Philippi and who dressed my wounds, and 
cheered and comforted me after I had been beaten 
and imprisoned. 

There were Priscilla and Aquila, too, my friends 
in Corinth and Ephesus, ^'who for my life laid 
down their own necks.'' Then there were Luke, 
my beloved doctor, and Timothy and Silas, and so 
many others that I cannot even name them now; 
but I know that their names are written in God's 
book, and I know that whatever good work I was 
able to do I owed largely to them ; so I like to re- 
member the helpers and forget the hinderers. 



PAUL'S HELPEES AND HINDEEERS 177 

I wonder whether you are all trying to be help- 
ers too. Read the twelfth chapter of my letter that 
Phoebe carried to Rome, and that will show yon 
some ways of helping; and then we must always 
remember that we can all help together by prayer. 



HOW TWO MEN TURNED THE WORLD 
UPSIDE DOWN 

{As Silas might tell the story if he could come 
back) 

My name is Silas, and I was chosen by Paul to 
go with him on his second missionary journey. I 
don't suppose my name would ever have been 
heard of if it had not been for my friendship with 
Paul and for his great missionary work in which 
I tried to help him. 

We had had to bear a good many hard things 
on our journey, especially in Philippi, where they 
had beaten us and put us in prison for preaching 
about Jesus Christ, and we had had a long, hard 
journey from there to Thessalonica. This was a 
very important seaport, and there were many 
travellers passing through the city in every direc- 
tion ; so Paul thought it was just the place for us ; 
for, if we could persuade the Thesaalonians to be- 
come followers of Christ, they would pass on the 
story of Jesus and His love to many others. 

The people of Thessalonica were mostly Jews 
and Greeks; and, though the Jews believed on God, 

178 



TUKNING THE WOELD UPSIDE DOWN 179 

they did not know Jesus, and the Greeks wor- 
shipped idols. For three Sundays we went to the 
Jewish synagogue, and Paul preached to them 
about Jesus, explaining the Old Testament proph- 
ecies about Him, and telling them how He had 
died for us, that we might be saved. The people 
listened with great interest, and a good many of 
the Greeks believed Paul's teachings, and gave up 
their idols for the living God. But many of the 
Jews were envious of Paul's influence, and would 
not listen to his teachings, or allow others to listen 
if they could help it ; and they soon made a great 
tumult in the city. 

One night a mob gathered in the streets, and 
tried to break into the house of Jason, who was 
our friend, that they might take Paul and kill him. 
But Jason found a way to get us quietly out of the 
city, and sent us with friends to Berea. 

I suppose you never saw such an angry crowd 
of people as those who were in Jason's street that 
night. They broke into the house, shouting and 
howling, and dragged Jason and some of his 
friends before the rulers of the city, and said, 
''These that have turned the world upside down 
have come here also.'' That was all they could 
think of to say against us, and their charge was 
really true, for that was just what we were trying 



180 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

to do. We were trying to turn the world upside 
down by putting down the evil and lifting up the 
good. The rulers were a good deal troubled and 
worried, but they could not find Paul; and there 
seemed to be nothing they could do but to bind 
Jason and his friends to keep the peace, and let 
them go. 

They had driven us out of the city, but they 
could not drive out the effects of Paul's preaching, 
and we left many Christians there, though there 
was not one when we entered the city. If turning 
the world upside down means driving out the evil 
and bringing in the good, then we two unknown 
travellers had certainly turned a large part of that 
city upside down. 

It was a great sorrow to Paul that he had to 
leave Thessalonica before he had finished his work 
there, and he longed to go back and explain to 
them the way of God more perfectly, but since he 
could not do that he wrote them a letter from 
Corinth some time later, making more clear to 
them some things that they had not understood. 

In that letter he told them how glad he was that 
they had turned from idols '^to serve the living 
and true God.'' He had heard three things about 
them that made him very happy, for he had heard 
of their ^Svork of faith, and labor of love, and 



TUKNING THE WOELD UPSIDE DOWN 181 

patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ''; and, 
when he thought of these things, he did not wonder 
that their example had been a help to Christians 
everywhere. ''From you," he wrote, ''has sounded 
out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia 
and Achaia, but also in every place your faith in 
God has gone forth." 

These Thessalonians, too, were *' turning the 
world upside down,' ' so that not only in their own 
city but in many other places in all the region 
round about people were turning from idols to 
serve the living and true God. I was always 
glad that I went with Paul on that journey, and 
helped in the good work; and what Paul did I 
believe every one can help to do, for every one who 
is trying to put down the evil and lift up the good 
is helping at least a little to turn the world upside 
down as Paul did. 



A LETTER PAUL WROTE ABOUT 
^'ENDURING HARDNESS '' 

{As Timothy might tell the story now) 

I WAS a very young man, not much more than a 
boy, when Paul and Barnabas first came to Lystra, 
where my home was. My father was a Greek ; but 
my mother was a Jewess, and she and my grand- 
mother had taught me my Bible almost from the 
time when I was a baby. Of course I had only the 
Old Testament, for the New Testament was not 
written then; but I knew my Bible well, and I 
loved God and tried to do right. I have always 
been glad to remember that a part of the New 
Testament was written specially for me. I don't 
suppose Paul ever thought that you would read it, 
or perhaps any one but myself ; and yet the advice 
it gives is good and helpful to everybody who 
reads it to-day. 

When Paul and Barnabas came to Lystra, I was 
very much interested in their teachings, for that 
was the first time I had heard about Jesus. Soon 
after they came a wonderful thing happened. 
There was a poor cripple sitting by the wayside 

182 



^*ENDUEI:N^G HAEDNKSS'' 183 

begging, who had never been able to walk a step 
in his whole life. Paul had seen this poor lame 
man sitting there, and had noticed that he listened 
earnestly to his teachings; and, believing that he 
had faith to be made whole, he said in a loud 
voice, ''Stand upright on thy feet!" And in- 
stantly he stood up and walked. The people of 
Lystra were so awed by what had happened that 
they believed Paul must be a god, and they made 
ready to worship him in their own fashion. I was 
standing by when they brought oxen and garlands 
to sacrifice to him; and I heard Paul say most 
earnestly that he was not a god, but only a man 
like themselves; and he urged them to worship 
''the living God, who made the heaven, and the 
earth, and the sea, and all that in them is." 

From that time I took every opportunity to 
listen to Paul as he tried to teach the people a 
better way, and he taught me to believe in the 
Lord Jesus Christ. When later some of the Jews 
who hated Paul had persuaded the people to stone 
him, and when they drew him out of the city, and 
left him for dead, I was one of those who helped 
Mm to rise; and it was to my home that he was 
taken for rest and loving care after enduring such 
hardships. 

When he came again to Lystra on his second 



184 BIBLE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES 

missionary journey, and invited me to travel with 
him and Silas, I was very glad to go, and glad that 
my neighbors could speak well of me so that he 
wanted me. Together we endured hardness many 
times, for I was with him in many journeys from 
this time till near the end of his life. 

Paul's very last letter was written to me from 
his prison in Rome, while I was trying to help the 
people of Ephesus to know the Christ and obey 
His teachings. That last letter of his, written from 
a Roman prison, has been a great comfort and help, 
not only to me, but to thousands of Christians 
ever since. 

He knew that in Ephesus, where most of the peo- 
ple worshipped the goddess Diana in the great 
temple that was one of the seven wonders of the 
world, I should have many hard things to bear; 
and he wanted to strengthen me to bear them. He 
was himself enduring hardness while he wrote, but 
he was bearing it cheerily, and he told me that I 
must take my part in enduring hardness. He said 
I must not have a spirit of fearfulness, but of 
power and love. It was because he had been 
preaching Christ Jesus that he was now enduring 
hardship in prison; but he said, ''I am not 
ashamed, for I know Him whom I have believed, 
and am persuaded that He is able to guard that 



^^ENDUElIsG HAEDNESS'^ 185 

which I have committed unto Him.'' Then he 
added, ''Thou, therefore, my son, be strong in the 
grace that is in Christ Jesus. . . . Endure 
hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, and 
try to please Him who hath chosen you to be a 
soldier. ' ' 

That is the way we can all endure hardness, by 
trying to please Him who has chosen us to be His 
soldiers ; and He will make us strong. I had many 
hard things to bear in Ephesus for many years 
after Paul died ; but I had his precious letter, and 
that ahvays helped me, as I believe it will help you. 
' ' Trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ for strength, ' ' 
we can all learn to endure hardness, and so become 
^'strong in the Lord, and in the power of His 
might." 



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